After 9/11, Woodlawn Road and Beulah Road across Ft. Belvoir were closed. Plans are underway for the proposed Woodlawn & Beulah replacement road that will link US-1 and Telegraph Rd (Rte 611). This new road will also serve as part of US Bike Route 1 and Adventure Cycling's Atlantic Coast Route.
Currently, no special on-road bicycle accommodations are proposed. Instead a 10-foot wide paved shared-use path is proposed to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. This path would run along the south side of the new road and routed through the woods at some distance from the roadway along a "meandering route".
WABA would like to see the travel lanes narrowed and room for cyclists made on the side.
The proposed roadway is already wide enough to accommodate cyclists. A multilane divided minor arterial road with few large vehicles and posted for 35 MPH does not need 50 feet of asphalt pavement to accommodate four travel lanes. The four travel lanes could be safely narrowed to 11 feet each (44 ft), leaving 6 feet over for bike lanes (or wide outside lanes). It should even be feasible to stripe each travel lane 10.5 feet wide (42 feet), making two 4-ft bike lanes.
The public comment period for the public hearing closes on Monday, September 18, so there's little time to get bicyclists and organizations to submit comments. Go here to submit yours.
While on the subject of Fort Belvoir, and considering the impending traffic crunch there,
Two congressmen from Northern Virginia chastised the Army yesterday for ignoring a looming traffic nightmare in its plans to bring more than 22,000 additional workers to Fort Belvoir in the next five years.
Does anyone know what is to happen to the abandoned railroad that crosses the base? It would make a nice bike trail.
About Ft. Belvoir's abandoned railway bed--Yes! It would make a great bike path, since the old 3-mile route is nearly completely wooded and it inludes a railroad bridge that avoids and passes over Route 1. What a great, low-cost way to avoid all the congestion and traffic jams around the post.
Posted by: Bill McGovern | September 25, 2006 at 11:00 AM