Say Goodbye to the "Big Stinky": DDOT to Begin Metropolitan Branch Trail Extension

On October 31, 2017, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) issued the Potomac Construction Company a Notice to Proceed for the design-build construction of the next phase of the Metropolitan Branch Trail. The new trail will connect the existing trail from John McCormack Drive in Brookland to the Fort Totten Metro Station. This is the next major milestone toward the completion of the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

The new trail segment will provide a direct off-street route for bicyclists and pedestrians traveling through the Fort Totten area. It will include LED lighting, security cameras, and way-finding signage, and permeable pavement, along with bio retention facilities, which are similar to rain gardens.

Using a design-build process for construction of the Metropolitan Branch Trail streamlines the final design process and construction, which is expected to be conducted, weather permitting, within the next 18 months.

DDOT recently completed another upgrade to the Oxon Run Trail in Ward 8. The Oxon Run Trail project created new connections to Oxon Run Park and surrounding neighborhoods and included installation of new benches, tables, bicycle racks, and LED lighting. The project also uses porous pavement and additional green infrastructure to improve water quality in Oxon Run.

Comments

[Richard L Layman]

The thing that I hadn't thought of about the trail concept until recently, dealing with the trail segments from Fort Totten to Piney Branch Road, as part of my ANC's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, is that it does illustrate the problems that can derive from drawing concepts as a line on a map.

... this being a frequent criticism of planning as just drawing lines on a map.

Getting from the concept to the actual infrastructure and facilities can be much more difficult.

Within DC, it's relatively easy to put in the trail from Kansas Avenue southward, as long as National Park Service cooperates--which until recently, they have been iffy.

Creating the segments between Kansas Avenue and Piney Branch Road are particularly difficult, because there is no "railroad right of way" or similar types of property that can be easily used.

Dealing with some of this now, there are some alternatives, but it even comes down to "how do you thread a trail through a couple of particularly gnarly locations and blocks"?

Then it becomes choosing "the least worst alternative."

DDOT has been given a particularly difficult challenge with this trail.

[Drew]

I appreciate what DC has done with the MBT, even though the last few segments are taking a while. Although not a daily commuter to DC, I have ridden the trail many times on weekends and have found it a great way to get downtown from lower MoCo/PG, especially in comparison to the on-road routes that preceded it.

I'll be glad when the extension to Fort Totten is done because I've gotten several flat tires while riding the trail along Bates/McCormack -- too many shards of broken glass around there.

I rode the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail last year and enjoyed it as well. Maybe this month I will find time to try the Oxon Run Trail.