CWL 2018 # 5 Idylwood to Dumfries

The first corridor on the list to reach inside the Beltway on the Virginia side is a corridor from the W&OD Trail at Idylwood to Possom Point in Dumfries. The 27-mile long corridor has a sizeable barrier in the south end at the Occoquan and I can't imagine a bridge being built there at any point soon.

The corridor starts near where the W&OD Trail crosses the Beltway. There it intersects with the power lines that run along the W&OD, though at this spot they're separate. About 1000 feet of trail would connect them. In the map below the W&OD is in blue and the corridor in green.

The corridor inside the Beltway might seem like an opportunity - running between two trails with another in the middle, but there are so many barriers to deal with. On one end is the W&OD trail, on the other is the Cross County Trail and in between is the Arlington Boulevard Trail; but getting between them is the trick. A trail through the corridor would need to navigate the golf course at Jefferson District Park,Lee Highway, the Arlington Boulevard interchange, Gallows Road, the Beltway and the Little Turnpike interchange.

To get to Arlington Boulevard, a trail could follow along the corridor and on the north side of the golf course - with some protection from stray balls like what has been done at Paint Branch in Maryland - and then along Shreve road to an at-grade crossing at the controlled intersection with Lee Highway. Then to the trail along the retaining pond to Fairview Parkway, across that on the crosswalk and onto the other side to connect to the Arlington Boulevard Trail via the sidepaths and other trails in the area. 

It would then cross Arlington on the existing trails and then return to the area adjacent to the Beltway, navigating around the edge of the parking lots in the corridor to Gallows where the nearest crosswalk is a few blocks away at Woodburn Elementary. Perhaps that could be fixed some day. Once across Gallows it would need to find it's way back to the corridor and then, ideally, at a point across from Accotink Park cross over the Beltway on a new bridge to the Cross County Trail.

Once on the other side of the Beltway it could use the Cross County Trail to get to Braddock road. Then use the Lake Accotink Trail to get to get to Rolling Road.   Rolling Road would get the trail over the railroad tracks and back to the corridor. 

South of Rolling Road a trail would be pretty easy to build on the corridor all the way to the Occoquan. There are 3 big roads to cross (Ox Road, Fairfax County Parkway and Old Keene Road) but there are options to make those crossings. Several trails cross here - the Fairfax County Parkway Trail, a trail along South Run and one along Ox Road. Just before getting to the river it intersects with the corridor between Middleburg and Lorton. 

I don't know if a bike/ped crossing of the Occaquan makes sense here (or at the Corridor that crosses just a little to the east of it) but if it did, it wouldn't be too hard then to extend it to Mnniefield Road in Woodbridge. Farther south becomes much more complicated. 

So outside the Beltway, the trail is easier to build, but with less benefit. Inside, there's lots of benefit, but it's hard to build. 

Comments

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

This is the one that I know best, and am most excited about - just to get a direct trail connection from Annandale (IE at Little River Turnpike) to the W&OD would be terrific.

[HappyRider]

I'm familiar with much of the area of this proposed route. It would be hard to make this route a reality, and illustrates the poor infrastructure in southern FFX county. I live in Springfield and have spent hours trying to piece together routes for my commute northward. I can come up with a segment here, and a segment there, but when I piece it together, it's a mess that the average cyclist would never use.