On the Prince George's County Parks website for the WB&A Trail spur, the page announces that "The new trail is expected to be complete in Spring 2015."
Which sounds great, except that this past summer it read "The new trail is expected to be complete in late 2014" and the summer before that "The new trail is expected to be complete in early 2014." I guess, like tomorrow, it's always a day away.
Construction has begun in an effort to transform the former WB&A Spur into a hard-surface trail from the Horsepen Trailhead northward, above the peaceful wetlands along the Patuxent River.
This is just the trail up to the point where the bridge will be built. The bridge won't be built where the old bridge was due to a dispute over ownership of the ROW. And it's not clear when the bridge will be built or what it will look like. According to one source, Anne Arundle county wants to avoid an EA for the project, because it's concerned that an EA will determine that a direct trail is more cost effective, has less impact on the environment and provides more utility than the bridge in the place where AA wants to build it. So the County and MDOT are negotiating over whether or not one is needed. So don't hold your breath waiting for that bridge to be finished.
Meanwhile, the Folly Branch Trail also continues to miss deadlines. In September of 2013, it was to "be complete in Summer 2014." Now the "Construction is slated to begin late 2014 and the trail will be completed in 2015. "
Someone e-mailed me, "The first 0.6 miles starting at the WB&A trail near the Race Track Road parking lot is still not paved, but the last 0.9 miles is." So even though the timeline keeps slipping, actual progress seems to be occurring. (He also noted that there are some water issues that need to be dealt with on the still-unpaved part.)
Posted by: Pseudoprime | January 13, 2015 at 10:42 AM
In late December I road to the end of the trail to the river. The spur was being worked on. It looked like it was cleared of trees and graded. A few hundred feet were covered with large gravel. There was a small asphalt paving machine parked at the head of the spur. A week later the gate that normally allows bikers to get to the river was chained off.
Posted by: twk | January 13, 2015 at 03:45 PM
The Folly Branch extension was "delayed" because M-NCPPC thought it would get funded by Maryland bikeways in 2013 but it didn't get the funding until 2014. This time it's really happening.
Posted by: JimT | January 14, 2015 at 11:03 AM
Since it seems like this bridge will never get built (grrr Anne Arundel County developers grrr), how hard is it to ford the river there?
Posted by: paytonc | January 14, 2015 at 10:58 PM
The river is pretty substantial there if I recall. I mean, I can totally bunny-hop it, but most people can't.
Posted by: washcycle | January 14, 2015 at 11:10 PM
I doubt that one could ford the river. You can get a good view of it from the dead-end section of trail just north of Race Track Rd. The river appears relatively deep and probably has a lot of sediment on the bottom. Think something like the Monacacy or the lower stretch of 4 Mile Run in Arlington. In the Colonial era ships would travel up the Patuxent to a point not too far downstream.
Posted by: Purple Eagle | January 15, 2015 at 07:38 AM
I frequently visit this segment of the WB&A Trail and have been checking in on the construction progress.
As was said by twk, the trail's first half-mile is graded and paved with large railroad-like ballast. There is a low area that is frequently flooded from the adjacent wetland and will either have to be raised up on a short embankment with a culver, or bridged.
Past the low area, the trail is only graded with no ballast. At a seemingly arbitrary point, the trail is paved with a thin layer of asphalt up to a large excavated space where a culvert is being constructed for a stream. Beyond there the paved trail continues along the railroad alignment.
As for fording the river, I wouldn't try it in this area. It is rather deep and muddy and at least 30 feet wide on average.
I contacted the Anne Arundel County Department of Parks and Recreation and learned that the official earliest date that the trail would open down to the Patuxent River is April 2015. I also heard from some locals that the trail is complete and un-barricaded in the Two Rivers development.
Posted by: TheOneKEA | January 25, 2015 at 06:31 PM
There is a new paved trail, pretty curvy with switchbacks, on the Odenton side of the river that makes a pretty big detour from the former end of the WB&A on our side. I live in Piney Orchard and am thrilled at the progress. I really hope we can cross the river some day soon. I don't care about there being a detour. Anything is better than riding down Rt 3 and then up 450 where there is no shoulder, to get across the river.
Posted by: Bill Rowell | February 27, 2015 at 09:27 AM