New NoVa Transportation projects will connect, build and improve bike trails

When the Humpback Bridge was rebuilt back in 2010-11, it not only widened and straightened the Mount Vernon Trail it also included two underpasses for trail users. One goes to the Marina and LBJ memorial and the other dead ends about 100 yards after going under the MVT. 

But thanks to new regional transportation project funding that dead end will soon connect to Boundary Channel Drive creating a critical new connection between Arlington and the Mt. Vernon Trail. As part of the 2015 Q1 funding, the Boundary Channel exchange project will get $4.335M to "Constructs two roundabouts at the terminus of the ramps from I-395 to Boundary Channel Drive, which eliminate redundant traffic ramps to/from I-395. In addition, the project will create multi-modal connections to/from the District of Columbia that will promote alternate modes of commuting into and out of the district(sic)." 

But wait, there's more.

• Funding will go towards the Crystal City Multi-modal center that will, among other things, add bicycle parking.
• Columbia Pike between Fairfax County and Four Mile Run will be reconfigured for multi-modal travel.
• A Belmont Ridge Road project in Loudoun County will include a structure to carry the W&OD trail over the road (Which should help these ladies)
• Route 1 and Route 28 in Prince William County will get multi-use trails along side them.

Comments

[DE]

This is a good development to finish the trail to Boundary Channel Drive. There really aren't very good ways through Arlington here--the LBJ park footbridge and the rather scary group of crossings of Route 27 and the parkway are neither of them especially appealing or efficient. You can't bike at all through Arlington National Cemetery, and you have to submit ID and wear a helmet to go through Ft. Myer.

That said, I kinda like biking down the trail to nowhere along the Boundary Channel. It's a strange, peaceful, mostly unused yet still mostly maintained place.

[Allen Muchnick]

Don't expect the Arlington trail or wider sidewalk (Columbia Pike) projects to be completed anytime soon or in less than another decade, based on how long Arlington has taken to complete "fully funded and partly designed" trail projects during the past two decades.