Anne Arundel County section of the WB&A Trail extended to the Patuxent

The WB&A Trail has long suffered from a gap between the 3.8 mile long section in Anne Arundel (AA) County and the 5.6 mile long section in Prince George's. While a gap still exists, it got significantly shorter last week when a 1.7 mile extension of the trail opened in AA County. In addition, the WB&A Trail Spur from the parking lot at Race Track to the bridge location has been completed. Now both trail sections extend to the Patuxent River shoreline directly across the river from one another. The design phase of the bridge to connect them is expected to start this year with construction scheduled for 2017.

Construction on this new section of 10 foot wide trail started sometime early last year. 

This section of the trail, Phase III for AA County, was originally to run on the same abandoned railroad line that most of the rest of the trail runs on, but instead it runs on a detour several miles out of the way. I haven't ridden or seen this new section but Jim Titus summed it up thusly:

the old railbed would provide a gradual slope down to the river. The detour would send the trail first up a small hill, then down a steep incline toward the river.

The route down to the river is so steep it requires several switchbacks. According to officials who attended a meeting on the subject in September, the turns are so sharp that the maximum safe speed is 7 mph, and the steep slopes do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Then, at the bottom of the hill, the detour trail would have to cross several hundred feet of floodplain wetlands before reaching the river.

I'll note that the actual as-built trail route as seen from Google maps does seem to differ a little from the map shown back in 2011 and is more like this one from 2012. So I don't know to what extent it mitigates those concerns.

The reason for the detour was to avoid land owned by Buz Meyer who ran a hunting and firearms training facility there. (Jim Meyers' post at GGW goes into much greater detail on this). The detour adds 10 minutes of travel time (at least) for trail users. 

So, with the PG County Spur either complete or soon-to-be, the bridge is the only thing missing from the original plan.

The state awarded Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties a $560,000 grant to commission a feasibility assessment and preliminary design for the bridge in fiscal 2013 through its Maryland Bikeways Program, and county officials said the design phase is slated to begin this year.

But WABA would like to see the trail extended in PG County via a sidepath along MLK highway and a trail connection to the New Carrollton Metro. 

To fully realize this trail’s potential as a recreation and commuter route, it needs a direct connection to the regional trail network. It must be extended west, and the first big hurdles are crossing US 50 and the Capital Beltway.

The north end of the trail in AA County connects to the east-west Odenton Bike path, which uses another abandoned section of the same railroad. A bike trail is planned to continue along this ROW all the way to Annapolis.  At last report, work was to begin on Phase I of that this past spring, but I don't see any signs that it did. [There's also plans to add a trail parking lot at Patuxent Road].

In addition, the Bowie Heritage Trail Phase 9 will eventually connect the recently created WB&A Trail Spur on the PG County side to Bowie State University and across it to the Bowie MARC station.

This recently-opened section of trail was paid for by the developers who will be building along, and on top of, the old railroad bed.

The final stretch was paid for by the Classic Group, Two Rivers Associates and Koch Homes, developers who are involved in the Two Rivers project adjacent to the bike path. The 2,000-unit community, which is still under construction, will have a mix of age-restricted and unrestricted housing when it's built out.

Comments

[Purple Eagle]

The trail in PG County has been extended from the parking lot on Race Track Rd. The new trail follows the spur to the NW, towards Bowie State and the Amtrak line. It's a nice trail, part of it along a wetland with some boardwalk. The trail ends at a utility corridor, at a spot where it appears people come to party or hang out, based on debris at the site. The spur continues, with no trail, for another ~1/4 mile to the Amtrak line near the river. The spot where the trail currently ends is not quite at the river; it appears, from the satellite view (one can see the route of the new trail in AA county) that this new section goes beyond where the bridge will be built. So they will need to build a few hundred yards of trail, at least (one can't see the river from the new trail, so I am not sure how far it is) to get down to the river. The rest of the new trail will continue to be a spur from the main trail, it appears (I hope that makes sense. I rode the new section a few weeks ago).

[washcycle]

Thanks, I'll update the post.

[Purple Eagle]

Here is an approximate map of the new section of trail. You can see that after approximately a mile it's roughly even with the new trail in AA county across the river, and then extends at least 1/4 mile beyond that point.

[twk]

@Purple Eagle
Thanks for the link. This follows the trail a bit closer.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6881435

It is hard to follow the trail though the trees. I will have to see what it looks like next time I go down there so I know where to look for signs of progress.

[MetMilo]

The new AA side of the trail does not get to the river, but close. There is a single track trail beyond the 'no trasspassing' sign that does go to the river, its not far I am told. That land is owned by the 2 rivers development, hence the sign so I did not follow all the way. the county does have the land for the bridge & adjacent area but I wasnt clear from my talk with an AA ranger where the extension/bridge would be- seems like it may be straight thru but that area has a bit of a grade issue. I tried to see the PG side of the trail from AA but could not-if I make it all the way down to the river next time I will see where the PG side will come in. I cannot tell so far from the PG side where the connection will be but it will not be at the end of the paved, probably closer to 1/2 way down. The PG side looks nice now that it is done but I do miss the off-road experience since there are so few natural surface trails in the county that are not in regional parks. But it will be nice to have a nice long raved trail spanning 2 counties

[twk]

My calculation is the bridge will be about 1.03 miles down the PG side of the WB&A spur. The vegetation is thick there and can't see the AA side.

[arendt]

Traillink accurately maps both PG and AA sides of the trail.
http://www.traillink.com/trail/wba-trail.aspx
Both new trail segments are quite nice in their own different ways. The hill and switchbacks add interesting character to the AA side of the trail, but are clearly not as safe as a straight rail trail would have been:
http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/for_the_record/ph-ac-cn-biking-accident-odenton-0531-20160531-story.html

In the winter, when there are no leaves on the trees I think you can barely see across the river from the spur trail to the end of the AA trail. The entire unbuilt segment and bridge must cross lower-lying flood plain. On the AA side there's a 6' wide side channel of the river just past the immediate end of the trail. On the PG side you can walk directly out to the river bank without getting wet or muddy, as long as it has been dry (or frozen) for a while. I think there would be flooding issues if they were to put the bridge connection directly on the ground. I expect they will need an elevated boardwalk to lead to the actual bridge from both sides. (This wouldn't have been a problem on the historical WB&A grade. Argh.)

An interesting feature of the spur trail is that it has signed posts at 1/4 mi intervals. At each location there's also short segment of faux rails and ties painted on the trail. At the start of the spur trail, it's faux ties but with real rails embedded (flush) in the trail.

There are still dirt trails and roads between the spur trail and the river, between the spur and Bowie State, and on the other (north) side of the RR tracks (either follow the unpaved spur to Amtrak and cross under the tracks at the Patuxent River bridge, or go around to Lemon's Bridge Road on the N side). All are susceptible to being muddy or flooded. These trails seem to be maintained at least in part by ATV and dirt bike usage.

[MetMilo]

Oh yea I'm about those other dirt trails, when they are not flooded :)

[Purple Eagle]

I road the new section on the AA side today - here are a few photos.

[Purple Eagle]

*rode

[washcycle]

It looks like the dirt trail follows the path of an old road. It's on the 1908 topo map leading to a bridge across the river. But both are gone by the time of the 1945 map.