495 widening would include a multi-use path, or at least plans for one

Last week VDOT held meetings on 495 Next, the Northern Extension of 495's HOT lanes. I think it's a bad idea to widen the area's highways because of global warming and the way that widening highways doesn't work and people dying and stuff, but I'm not going to mention that anymore in this post and I'm just going to focus on what they're looking at for cyclists as part of this project. 

They're working with Fairfax County, and using their bike plan as a guide, on creating trails in the corridor, behind the sound wall as well as on-road facilities and improvements at the Live Oak Drive, Georgetown Pike and Old Dominion Drive overpasses. 

The trail would start at the end of Lear Road in the Shakespeare part of McLean. A short section would run from Lear to Snow Meadow Lane, to be built by someone else (?). It also shows a short spur continuing along the toll road.

At Snow Meadow, trail users would cross Lewinsville Road and then get back on the trail, which would stay on the west side of 495 all the way to Georgetown Pike. Along the way there would be connections to Timberly Court and Old Gate Court through Timberly Park The project would construct a sidepath along Old Dominion Drive. Everything south (to the left below) would be built by somebody else (Who is this generous person?). I highlighted the trail to make it more visible

The 3 foot wide sidewalk on Old Dominion Drive would be upgraded to a 10 foot wide MUT with a barrier. The MUT would go from Dulany to a point past Dominion Court. 

Another upgraded bike/ped facility would get the trail across 495 at the Georgetown Pike, where the trail would switch to the east side, inside the Beltway. Inside the Beltway it will run on the west side of Balls Hill Road to Live Oak. I'm surprised there are no connections to Spencer Road or Peter Place (highlighted in red) in this section. The project will build everything to Live Oak, but then north of that it is someone else(?)

There's currently no sidewalk along Georgetown Pike over 495, but this plan adds a 10 foot wide MUT with a barrier here too. The plan should include extending the MUT on the Pike east to Cooper Middle School and Deer Run Drive.

After Live Oak, the trail would run along the inside of the Beltway, crossing under the GW Parkway and it's ramps down to the American Legion Bridge which it would someday cross - one would hope - to the C&O Canal Towpath. On the drawing below, the trail ends at about the same place that a Mount Vernon Trail would end according to the 2002 expansion study NPS did. That trail would hit this trail just south of it's terminus.  It would cool if they built the first few feet of it to the "disturbance limit" or even better the section all the way to Turkey Run.

Live Oak Drive has a sidewalk now, and would appear to get a wider one in this plan.

So it's great that they have some plans to add a trail along this section. It would be great if someone else wasn't building so much of it, and if they added a few more connections. And it would be really great if they weren't doing the thing I'm not talking about. 

 

Comments

[roomd]

There's no trust to any of those studies and plans after the ICC bait and switch.

[huskerdont]

The ICC bait-and-switch was Maryland; this is Virginia, where the plans will prolly change to a hot-and-dirty strip of pavement between the travel lanes and the sound wall.

But if constructed, some of those additions could be quite helpful in what is essentially a cycling desert, even if in some cases they don't connect to much of anything yet. Lewinsville, for instance, connects to Great Falls St., which is bikeable (for my comfort level). If there were a trail along the beltway connecting to Old Dominion and Georgetown Pike, that would be pretty helpful. While I'd never ride on Georgetown Pike, I would do a loop using Balls Hill to Churchill or back to Old Dominion. YMMV.

[washcycle]

I don't think the ICC trail was a bait and switch. There did wind up being a trail for part of the way and where it wasn't built, bike advocates who I believe have grudgingly agreed that building the trail would have required taking homes/damaging the environment.

And to the extent that that was a lesson, it was a different time. It will be harder to do that now, as there are more trail users and they're better organized. It is more a reason for vigilance and involvement than for apathy and resignation.