Alexandria presents options for new Potomac Yard park, ramp and bridge over Metro tracks

Alexandria has been working hard on the design of the new Potomac Yard Metro Station and the elements that surround it such as the west side Potomac Yard Park, east side Potomac Greens Park and the South Side Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge that will connect them. They're currently soliciting comments on the PY Park now, though I suspect it is not too late to comment on anything. 

The plan above is a more fleshed-out version of Build B from this post back in May. Here the west side ramp extends out along the storm water pond in Potomac Yard Park. It's not clear how a user would access this, though one image in the December presentation shows the trail continuing north. 

A lot of the slides and renderings are included to show the different architectural designs of the stations (of which they were considering three: a "split form geometric", a "split form curvilinear" and a "single form geometric", though it seems the last of those has been dumped). Mostly this seems to be about the roof so I'll leave it to others to discuss the aesthetics of that. 

The December presentation showed some of the options for the type of bridge that would be built. Options are for a truss, thru-girder or hybrid, with the latter shown below.

That presentations also show renderings of the station based on the aforementioned designs. These renderings give some greater idea of the size and placement of the bike/ped ramps and bridge. In the below rendering of the split-form geometric station, the bike facility starts on the near side of the pond at Potomac Yard Park and then goes right to left to the bridge at top, across that and then down the ramp out of the picture to Potomac Green Drive.

The park plan below, from the February meeting, shows the ramp coming down to Potomac Green Drive, going past the park.

And there's also a rendering of the ramp, which will have covered bike parking underneath. 

There are also renderings of various parts of Potomac Yard Park, but the ramp in that is just a place-holding white form, since it doesn't seem to be something they're working on yet. 

They're still working on the final EIS and the Development Special Use Permit submission. One other thing worth noting is that it appears that one of the benefits being offered NPS by the city to mitigate impacts on the GW Parkway is Mt. Vernon Trail improvements. I'm not sure what those improvements are, but the mitigation commitments are to be formalized this spring.

 

Comments

[Froggie]

Major nitpick: It's Potomac Yard. Singular, not plural.

As for the station and area, I'm just hoping A) they actually get it built, B) they make it possible to cross without entering the station, and C) they don't require "bikes to dismount" if all they're doing is crossing the tracks.

[washcycle]

Thanks Froggie, I must've gotten it confused with a similarly named park and metro station in Silver Springs.

[DE]

Where's the thumbs up buttons?

[David Dunn]

Thank you for all you do WashCycle!! I am a lifelong cyclist and Alexandria native who loves our regional trail infrastructure and endorses accessibility. There are a few issues and potential solutions with the proposed Metro pedestrian access design that this article could also consider. The design can be friendlier for commuters, pedestrians, and of course cyclists. May we discuss? It would be great to get ideas and comments. If I'm nuts you can just say so. Email me anytime. Thank you :)