Arlington County presented the Final Draft Design of South Park at Potomac Yards, a small rectangle of land on the north side of Four Mile Run between Route 1 and Potomac Avenue, formerly known as Land Bank F. The Four Mile Run Trail will pass through the park, and the park will include trail connections to both Route 1 and Potomac Avenue. It will also include bike parking, a trail map, signage and bicycle calming.
This is basically concept C as presented in the spring and it was the one I preferred because it created a direct and shaded connection between the trail and the street grid. It was also preferred by those who took the survey. Survey participants also preferred the name Luna Park.
In addition to the trails across the park and the connection between them, the park will include bike parking. Work on the Arlington portion of the park won't begin until 2023 (part of the park is in Alexandria and part is in Arlington because the line didn't move when Four Mile Run was straightened out) but in late 2018, they'll start work on "Phase 1" which will create a trail connection to Route 1 along with turf and plantings. Phase 1 has been modified a little since the spring. The trail connection follows a slightly different route without a transition area in the middle.
At least two participant at the meeting were concerned with cyclists biking too fast and running pedestrians down (don't do that). Another was worried that a lack of parking for the park would result in people parking illegally (don't do that either).
As a commuter who passes through this area twice daily, I am hoping that no closures with detours of the Four Mile Run trail will be required to do this work. At the risk of sounding whiny, in the past several years Four Mile Run has had what seems like a lot of detours for different construction. Still, the resulting widened trail for 3/4 of a mile or so is a nice upgrade.
Is this separate from the discussed pedestrian bridge across some part of Four Mile Run? Is that likely to be implemented?
Posted by: Michael Neubert | November 24, 2017 at 09:58 AM
I have to concur with the previous comment about shutting down trail access for extended periods without providing reasonable detours for trail commuters. Arlington and Alexandria have both done this in recent years. We know that neither jurisdiction would shutdown a roadway for an extended period without making significant accommodations for motorized traffic. They should not shutdown commuter trails without providing safe, reasonable detours to Bicycle commuters.
Posted by: Old Town Outsider | November 24, 2017 at 12:10 PM
Michael, this is separate from the bridge. The bridge will be built farther upstream. As to how likely it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, it's not dead yet.
But there was a detour for the most recent closure of FMRT, it just involved crossing to the other side of the stream.
Posted by: washcycle | November 24, 2017 at 07:20 PM
On the one hand considerable planning went into the detour to the trail on the Alexandria side, but on the other hand, "just crossing" minimizes somewhat the issues involved (especially right at Mount Vernon Avenue).
In the case of the new park, there is no real option on the Alexandria side, as there is no entry to the MVT in Alexandria north of Slaters Lane, AFAIK. The alts are rte 1 to S Glebe, to Potomac Avenue (either back south to the 4MRT, or north to the Crystal City connection)
Posted by: ACyclistInThePortCIty | November 27, 2017 at 10:38 AM