In 2014, WABA released a concept plan for the Arlington Boulevard Trail (ABT). Unlike the concept plans WABA created for the Capital Crescent and Metropolitan Branch Trail, the Arlington Boulevard Trail already exists. But as WABA points out in the plan, it is discontinuous and below standard. The concept plan called for 3 miles of new trail and miles of upgrade to double the length of the trail. In the long term, it proposed a full multi-use trail to be constructed along both sides of the boulevard.
Despite recent improvements, the ABT has not retained it's position of prominence in the County. The trail opened in 1974 as part of a project to build preferential bus lanes from Seven Corners to North Pershing, but the trail only went as far west as Four Mile Run, where it connected to the county's only other trail. By 1976 it was promoted as one of the "must-see" trails in the region, although that was mostly for it's ability to connect the Four Mile Run Trail to Arlington Cemetery - which at the time still allowed cycling on all of its roads. In 1979, the trail was extended from North Pershing around Fort Myer to Arlington Memorial Bridge, and that's pretty much the area covered by the trail today.
It's not clear what happened to the rush-hour, bus-preference lanes - thought they may have went away when the Orange Line opened to Ballston in 1979. It's also unclear if the trail, which now is mostly on-street between Four Mile and Pershing, was all off-road when opened. Either way, the trail is certainly not a "must see" trail today. A ride out to Four Mile Run or beyond it is mostly a task.
But the WABA plans aspires to change that.
As GGW wrote at the time, the trail has some good parts, and some simple to fix parts and then some expensive to fix parts.
There’s currently a plan to widen Arlington Boulevard underneath the Seven Corners interchange, and that would need some sort of path if non-drivers are to avoid a lengthy detour. Another significant challenge lies between Annandale and Gallows Road, where WABA notes that a bridge would be needed to cross 495. That’d likely be the most expensive part of the project.
The report came out just as Arlington County was finishing up improvements to the section of the Trail from Rhodes to North Pershing.
Since then, there's been at least one improvement as the trail was repaved, and some bollards removed, on the section from the Day's Inn to Washington Boulevard as part of a Washington Gas pipeline replacement.
Additionally the Capital Trails Coalition has chosen to highlight one section of the trail noted in the Concept Plan, the section from Federal Hill Dr. to Summerfield Rd in the Seven Corners area of Fairfax. This "Will fill a gap in the Seven Corners neighborhood of the existing Arlington Boulevard Service Road path"
Meanwhile, just this week Arlington County announced a few modest improvements to the block of the Arlington Boulevard trail where it's on Wainwright Road, that they have planned for this year. This is between the parts that got work in 2014 and 2017.
The following are the planned updates to the area for summer/fall of 2018:
• Construction of a new, ADA-accessible curb ramp at the corner of N Pershing Dr and Wainwright Rd (the frontage street between Arlington Blvd and the Days Inn hotel).
• Addition of on-street markings along the eastern portion of Wainwright Rd to separate trail users from motorized traffic.
• Removal of parking on the eastern portion of Wainwright Rd (VDOT right of way).
• Connection of the Wainwright Rd on-street trail to the existing Arlington Boulevard Trail as it approaches 2nd St N.
I thought Wainwright and the ABT were already connected, and it's odd that this wasn't done as part of the pipeline replacement , but whatever. Progress.
Farther out, Arlington has applied for federal highway safety funding to improve the Arlington Boulevard-Washington Boulevard Interchange. "The project will revisit the design of the interchange to improve traffic safety, while also improving the trail connection across the interchange to safely facilitate multimodal movements."
The boulevard trails, like the ABT, MacArthur Boulevard Trail and the planned or under-construction South Capital and Washington Boulevard Trails, don't get quite the coverage that the rail or stream trails get; but they're arguable more important for transportation as they go right through the areas where people live and work.
The ABT has a long history and, as WABA points out, plenty of potential. It can, or already does, connect to 8 trails including Rock Creek, Mt Vernon, W&OD and Cross County. As proposed by WABA, it could be a real backbone for Arlington County Biking. It would be great to see this once again become a must-see trail.
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