Met Branch Trail and other DDOT progress

In addition to announcing that more CaBi stations were to be installed soon, DDOT had announcements about other project progress at last week's Bicycle Advisory Council meeting.

• They have issued an RFQ for a study on a north-south cycletrack from Florida Avenue in Shaw to Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown. They're looking for a route on one of the roads between 5th and 9th, NW and the study will help to determine which road is the best for that. MoveDC has cycletracks on 5th and 6th. 
• DDOT kicked off Phase 2 of the design of the next section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail last week. This is the section between Bates Road (a.k.a. Big Stinky) and the Takoma Metro. NPS, which controls much of the land the trail will be built on, has agreed to proceed to the design phase and Toole Design Group has been hired to design the trail segment.
• DDOT is scoping a project to resurface the Suitland Parkway Trail. Complete reconstruction of the trail is being included in the Douglass Bridge replacement project with a timeline for completion in the 2018-19 time frame. 
• The 30% design of the Oxon Run Trail rebuild is done, with full design starting soon.
• The South Capitol Street Trail project will need to move a wall at Bolling Air Force base in order to be built to the standard that DDOT wants. That's being negotiated.
• DDOT is currently resurfacing the South Dakota Avenue NE sidepath from Bladensburg Road to the new Costco. They'd also like to improve biking on V Street NE if they can too. 
• They also handed out an updated version of this list of 2014 bike lanes.
• It moved several projects from "Ready to go" to "Installed Lanes" (M Street NW, 1st Street NE, 13th St NW, G and I NE, New Hampshire Ave NW, Piney Branch Road/13th Streeet and Washington Avenue SW) and there are also now sharrows on Ft. Totten Drive NE.
• Several other projects moved up to "Ready to Go" including 49th St NE, Galveston St SW, Harewood Rd. NE, MLK SE, and  Malcolm X Ave.
• A new bike lane project on 2nd Street SE between East Cap and Independence is listed as "In Design" as is a side path on 2nd NE btween F and L, a bike lane on 19th St from Potomac Ave SE to Benning Road NE, and a cycle track on M Street NE between 1st and Delaware. 

Comments

[Greenbelt]

This is great news, especially on the big stinky to fort totten section of the met branch trail.

I hope DDOT can consider better on or off road protected connections between Brookland/CUA and Columbia Heights.

I'd also love to see pressure for that three block cycletrack on the east side of Louisiana Ave (it's in Move DC) to connect the 1st St cycletrack with the PA Ave track:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6157&d=1404827002

[Purple Eagle]

So what does "phase II" mean with regard to actual construction of the next Met Branch segment?

[i heart newcomb]

I am thrilled about the prospects of having a bike trail on S Capitol! I always see some brave soul biking up S Capitol and I have thought of doing so myself. But it is so unsafe. S Capitol is for all intensive purposes a highway with no shoulders. Plus there is this underpass that gives drivers no visibility. God forbid a car encounter a bicyclist there! Here's to hoping the negotiations go smoothly with Bolling. Is there an estimated completion date?