The DC government is making plans to upgrade the Palisades Recreation Center which is located SE of Arizona Avenue between the Glen Echo Trolley right-of-way and C&O Canal Park. Advocates in the neighborhood having been working on turning the trolley right-of-way into a trail for some time (an idea that dates back at least as far as the National Parks Service's 1990 Paved Recreational Trails of the National Capital Region report and is also included in the MoveDC transportation plan). One motivation of the upgrade is to deal with too much automobile traffic during high-use events, so the upgrade will include things like reconfigured parking and neighborhood traffic calming. There's a slide in the presentation on the half mile section of the trolley trail in the immdediate area, but it seems more focused on the current conditions rather than upgrades like paving, though it does appear to have a couple of extra connections on the north end.
And the ROW looks more like a multi-use trail than the single-track dirt path that currently exists.
Last August, Toole Design prepared a document for the Palisades Citizen's Association showing the different permeable trail surface options and created renderings of each including green grid, crushed stone, permeable asphault and permeable pavers, which may give some idea of what they're considering.
Upgrading the trail between Galena and Nebraska would be a very good way to reduce car traffic to the park, while also creating a new recreational amenity and laying the groundwork for a new active transportation corridor all the way to Georgetown.
1) Link to official document is here:
http://dgs.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dgs/publication/attachments/Palisades%20Community%20Meeting%20060216.pdf
Because there is something screwy with DC's website, you might need to click on the link twice
2) The surface of this trail is the most contentious aspect of this plan. The survey that we did with the community had 900 respondents and paving got the least amount of votes within the Palisades community (And the most outside of the community)
Also, there were a significant amount of votes that wanted no surface (40% I think....but the other 60% wanted some type of surface)
3) Before this project I've never done this type of activism within any community I've ever lived in. I find it very rewarding and equally frustrating.
Posted by: Brett Young | June 14, 2016 at 05:31 PM
How does this tie into the recent move by the Tom Smith (rhymes with despicable) ANC to have the rec center landmarked as historic? Must this go through the same ANC that opposed New Mexico Avenue bike lanes?
Posted by: fongfong | June 15, 2016 at 09:59 AM
@fongfong
Landmarking only applies to Rec Center and Rec Center play ground which does NOT include Trolley right of way.
Posted by: Brett Young | June 15, 2016 at 01:43 PM