Vortex

Detour? by bikesnick

I think by the end of the week there will be about 15 cyclists trapped in there like the marching band from Animal House.

Comments

[Rootchopper]

Conveniently located up the ramp from the bollard farm. It's been like this for a couple of weeks. Hard to tell exactly what they are trying to accomplish.

[Bossi]

I'm also curious why a directional-class sign (white on green) is being used for a detour...

[Another Josh]

It was like that when I went through there on Father's Day. It made navigating this area with 30 lbs of toddler on my bike a challenge. What with the bollards that prevent cars from going under the same bridge that they are planning to put parking lots under and this lengthy construction, you'd think they don't really want bikes in this area.

[Eric_W.]

Have they placed the Variable Message Sign under the bridge yet? That was one of the assurances VDOT gave us to alert trail users of the dead end at the top of the street for anyone going towards Mount Vernon...

Otherwise, yes, the bollards suck. One particularly aggressive guy claimed that they were even too far apart and on top of it said that the path should not be going straight under the bridge but that trail users should instead use the long way around Jones Point.

I told that was a classic non-starter and to prepare for marking Washington Street as a bicycle path since people would not put up with that. Amazing how totally divorced from reality that one guy was. The other attendants from VDOT, TSA and the Wilson Bridge contractor were all reasonable.

The problem is that there are no guidelines and processes to follow and that the responsible parties do not include the stakeholders in the process. This would be the 750,000 trail users that pass there per year. That number is likely to grow quite a bit in the next few years.

As an aside to all this Homeland Security business: While we were having our discussion under the bridge, there were a couple of 18-wheelers pulling in that were not subject to any security checks at all. Just like any other vehicle that has been entering there for the last few years. The question really is why the terrorists would wait for an attack until all the security elements are in place and operational. Maybe because they love a challenge? It's just so sad.

[Crickey7]

That sign looks like someone trying to catch a runaway bike.

[Dave]

Does anybody know what they are doing here? The sidewalk cut seemed fine to me and I've not seen any evidence of actual work--just barriers closing a key intersection for weeks.

Another issue: as you come up the hill (i.e. southbound), your choices are to 1) stay on the trail, cruise around the mystery non-existent work, and then briefly dart into oncoming traffic on Washington Street to continue south on MVT or 2) navigate the twists and turns around the bollards (grrrr), take the road through the apartment complex then make a blind left turn, hoping no one decides to turn off Washington Street while you make a sharp, reverse angle turn.

[Eric_W.]

It is my understanding that they encountered issues with buried utilities that weren't marked. That is a cause of delay as is the fact that the contractor only calculated with a certain amount of time which might create additional delays.

Is the variable messaging board up? Sorry, Ib have not been able to get down there yet...