New Section Complete

No, the title doesn't refer to the new Wilson bridge, but rather the latest piece of the North Bethesda Trail (NBT). While I was gone last week (yes, work dropped some serious coin to send me all the way to northern Bethesda - I'll never get used to the accent) I wound up riding past a new piece of the NBT.  It runs along the old trolley line ROW just east of Fleming Avenue, from Grosvenor Blvd to the Beltway. I didn't have a camera with me, but here's a photo of the same area last fall when it was flagged for construction.
 
Another bit of construction began recently on the Mount Vernon Trail just south of Dangerfield Island. Here the trail is being moved away from a wetland portion and raised up, ostensibly to avoid an area that is often wet. No word on whether or not the new trail portion will be graded so that the center is higher than the edges for good drainage. This (I forget the technical term for it [crowning]) is almost never done on trails (though always on roads) so probably not.

The point of all of this is that I couldn't find anything about either project anywhere. No reporting in the media. No news on the NPS website for the GW Parkway. When I started this blog I asked the bike coordinators of DC, MoCo, PG County, Alexandria and Arlington to put me on their regular mailing lists. I get occasional emails from Jim Sebastian at DDOT. That's it. I get regular, unsolicited letters from Eleanor Holmes Norton where her office tells me all about the things she's doing to make my life awesome.  Sometimes bureaucrats need to behave more like politicians.  How hard is it to get a small periodic update together and send it out? Certainly easier than updating a website (which is also rarely done). What I'm talking about is open government and asking bureaucrats to promote themselves and the work they've done.

I do get emails (again unsolicited but welcome) from Alexa Viets with NPS's National Capitol Region Office for example one that told me that starting today NPS will begin to add a cofferdam at Outlet Bridge.

Pedestrian and bicycle access will be detoured to the northbound sidewalk of East Basin Drive during this brief closure. The planned completion date for all work is November 2007

How hard is that?

Comments

[25 lb backpack]

The "brief" construction on East Basin Drive lasts only...18 months. That's a long detour. Cars heading for the 14th St. Bridge treat that bit of road like an acceleration lane, and now all of the pedestrians and commuters will be ambling across. Let's be careful out there.

[Contrarian]

The notice from the NPS is a little misleading, as it implies that cyclists must use the sidewalk. Here's the full scoop: during construction, the southbound sidewalk will be closed and the right southbound lane of East Basin Drive will be closed from 7am to 3pm. Pedestrians must use the northbound sidewalk; cyclists may use either the northbound sidewalk, or the open lanes of East Basin Drive.

I cycle down there almost daily, and I would strongly recommend using the roadway rather than the sidewalk.

[Michael Plakus]

"No word on whether or not the new trail portion will be graded so that the center is higher than the edges for good drainage. This (I forget the technical term for it) is almost never done on trails (though always on roads) so probably not."

Crown is the term you are looking for.

[Chris]

I'm with Contrarian on this -- hey, does that make me a contrarian? -- I cycle quite frequently along that stretch and I never use the sidewalk. Take your spot in the road!