Arlington County is planning updates to Benjamin Banneker Park through which a spur of the W&OD trail currently runs. The short-term project will update some of the facilities at the park and they'd like input on the size of the parking lot, the W&OD and Four Mile Run Trail alignment, and location of the picnic area. In the longer run they want to develop some concepts for Benjamin Banneker Park's trail and park access.
I always think of the Four Mile Run Trail as ending just before Banneker Park (on the other side of Sycamore) but maybe I'm wrong, or maybe the plan is to extend it, but either way they have three plans to align the trails and they'd like public input on them.
Scheme A
In this scheme the W&OD and 4MR trails are combined and some smaller trails are added to the north and south of that trail. The trail would be next to an expanded youth field.
Scheme B
In Scheme B, the W&OD trail (red) and the 4MR trail (black) are separated.
Scheme C is similar, but with a playground beside the trail's west end, and different paths.
Scheme A "straightens the alignment" but it doesn't look that much straighter. If it is, I like that, but I also think the connection to Tuckahoe on the north side has value, even more so if a new trail bridge over Four Mile Run can be built to the east of the current bridge along the Tuckahoe alignment.
If you have opinions on this, please make them known on the survey.
In the long term, there are several ideas to change the trail alignment. Scheme A makes no changes to the trail (but adds a pedestrian path south of the trail)
Scheme B1 builds a new trail bridge on the east side of the park with a diagonal connection to Tuckahoe. That's not where I would have built it, but maybe there are topographical limitations to the other location. Note that in this scheme, and others below, the trail will no longer go west of the current trail bridge to go to N. Van Buren Street.
Scheme B2 build the bridge in the same location, but takes the W&OD Trail north along Sycamore to 19th.
Scheme C reroutes the W&OD Trail outside of the park by, one would hope, improving the current connection to 19th and Sycamore in East Falls Church Park on the other side of Sycamore.
So here's what I'd like to see:
- An improved trail (let's call it the Four Mile Run Trail) across the park along the south side of Four Mile Run, with an eye on continuing that all the way to the W&OD Trail west of Lee Highway. I'll note that the trail on the east side of the park is in Alexandria, not Arlington; as would most of a continued Four Mile Run Trail to the W&OD.
- A connection to Tuckhoe, across a new bridge on the Tucahoe alignment.
- "Reroute" the W&OD Trail along the connection to 19th and Sycamore, which should be straightened and improved with a better crossing of Sycamore.
But of the choices above, I guess I'd go with Scheme B1.
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