Construction to start soon on new Riverdale Bridge over CSX, will include bike facilities and connect to Trolley Trail

Below is a new rendering of the bridge over the CSX tracks that will connect Riverdale Park Station and M square in Riverdale Park.

It looks to me like the bridge has bike lanes, but those might just be wide shoulders. At the very minimum it has wide sidewalks. The west side of the bridge (on the left) will end at a "Village Green" one block from the new section of the PG County Trolley Trail. On the east side it will end at Tuckerman (I think), about 4 blocks from the NE Branch Trail. In the plan below, it is on the right side, with trail near the middle.

The text that goes with the top rendering.

Closure of Parking Lot of Former ERCO Plant Between the Rivertech Court Cul-de-sac and Lafayette Avenue in Riverdale Park

Work will soon begin on the much awaited new CSX crossing at Riverdale Park Station. The bridge construction work is significant and requires the closing of the former ERCO plant parking lot between the Rivertech Court cul-de-sac and Lafayette Avenue. This route has been used for years as a “short cut” from Lafayette Avenue to M-Square. The closure will begin on or about December 14, 2015 and will continue until the new bridge is open – estimated to be in April 2017.

The initial construction activities include the relocation of existing electrical and gas utilities that run parallel to the CSX tracks. Utility relocations are necessary for the construction of the new bridge over the CSX railroad tracks

Comments

[Purple Eagle]

Wow, you are on top of things! I just saw this yesterday on the project website.

There is a short bike/ped path connecting Taylor St to Rivertech Ct that should serve as a good alternative - I imagine this is what they will sign. Taylor is 3 blocks east of Lafayette. Or you can just go through Riverdale Recreation area to connect to the NE Branch trail.
Drivers will be stuck using route 1 or Kenilworth. It's exciting to see progress on this project!

[Greenbelt]

The Taylor street path doesn't have a curb cut at the outlet, but you can just hop down the sidewalk a bit to the next driveway. Also, there's a dirt path from the far SW corner of the ERCO parking lot that connects through the soccer field to get through the area.

Any new info on when the trolley trail section will be opened on the other side of the tracks?

[Will]

I worked on the transit area plan for College Park a few years back, and I know they (PG County) were thinking of bike lanes and bike access as an integral component of the plan. This bridge in particular was a matter of discussion, and they were interested in accommodating bikes. However, they hadn't decided anything when my part of the project was done. Looks like they went forward with bike lanes to me.

[Purple Eagle]

Hopefully (auto) traffic will be relatively light on the bridge, such that with wide "shoulders" it won't matter if they are not technically bike lanes. It does look like plenty of space. But it would be nice for bikes to have enough space to ride alongside cars rather than take a full lane, since there could be significant grade on the bridge (I am thinking it will be a bit like the one taking alternate route 1 over the tracks in Hyattsville, by Franklins?)

The project website does not have any updated info on the trail status. The entire site appears to be a construction zone at this point . . I don't expect it would be any earlier than next spring or summer. Interestingly there is a sign at the fence, where the trail stops (on both sides), indicating that the trail is "temporarily closed", or something like that.