TheWashCycle

Work on College Park Woods Connector Trail to start next month

Work on the College Park Woods Connector Trail, an extension of the Anacostia Tributary Trails System, will begin next month and complete in early 2020 according to a recent update. 

The College Park Woods Connector is a half-mile connector across University of Maryland land between the neighborhood of College Park Woods and the Paint Branch Trail. This trail project will link a residential community in the City of College Park with the University of Maryland campus and the Anacostia Tributaries Trail System. It will increase bicycle safety by providing a car-free bicycling and walking alternative to busy Metzerott Road and an at-grade crossing of University Boulevard.

The $1.3 million project will build easements across public institutions and private property, a boardwalk across wetlands, wayfinding signs and advanced-practice shared roadway markings to make the connection. 

The trail starts on the west side of the Paint Branch Golf Course, and then connects across open land to Greenmead Road. Then it uses that road to get to the south side of the USDA farm. It will follow a new path along the south side of the farm's fence, across a forest easement, the ROW for a future Atkinson Road and an easement to the east end of Depaw Place. 

That will allow for an on-road connection to Buck Lodge Community Park and Buck Lodge Middle School in Adelphi. 

CWL 2018 #1 Takoma Park To Ellicott City

The utility corridor from Ellicott City to Takoma Park is the one that comes the closest to Washington, DC, ending just 2000 feet from the DC Boundary at the Takoma Substation along New Hampshire Avenue. The corridor goes north, following a route once planned for a highway and once considered for the Green Line to the Beltway where it tracks along I-95, passing through Laurel and over the Patuxent River to Ellicott City and Howard County. 

Green is the Takoma-Ellicott City corridor, other utility corridors are in red. 

On the close-in section, within the Beltway, the corridor crosses the Sligo Creek, Northwest Branch and the Buck Lodge Community Park Trails, creating connections. The last of those could be the north end of the inside-the-Beltway section.  At Takoma, it could use Poplar Ave, Circle Ave and Kansas Lane in Montgomery County to connect to Kansas Avenue, which has bike lanes and will intersect the future Met Branch Trail.  That could be "Phase I" - the easy, close in trail. 

From Buck Lodge, extending the trail north across Prince George's County would require getting across the Beltway where the power lines go right through the I-95 interchange. Maybe a trail could be built under I-95 someday by building a trail through a larger underpass along Paint Branch, but the easiest route would likely be to connect the trail to the Little Paint Branch Trail extension (which is now open) and use that.  Then, using existing trails and bike lanes the trail could go all the way across I-95 to the ICC at Old Gunpowder Drive, where it could connect to the ICC Trail. From there, a trail to and along the utility corridor could, with admittedly some difficulty, then extend all the way to the Patuxent River. 

The trail would then need to cross the Patuxent River into Howard County, and do so at a point where the river is more of a lake due to a dam. It would likely make the most sense to go around the lake by building a route along Brooklyn Bridge Road, I-95 and Stansfield Road, but a bridge would be wicked cool. 

The trail could then continue along the corridor, with some more challenging barriers - like the Patuxent Freeway and Route 100 - before getting to the north end.

On the north end it connects to another corridor running around Baltimore from Pumphrey and the Baltimore Light Rail station at Nursery Road to Reisterstown and on north into Pennsylvania. 

Along the way the Takoma Park-Ellicott City line connects to two other corridors. One from Ashmead to Hanover and another that goes 84 miles from Germantown to the Nice Bridge. 

Of course a trail along here would only be a little cool. What would be really cool would be a trail with a transit line (like a busway?) along this corridor all the way to Takoma where it could then connect to one or more of the Metro Stations (Takoma, Fort Totten, Georgia Avenue or Hyattsville being most likely). The line is a straight shot and gets to with a couple of miles of multiple Metro stations. There's room for the power line towers, two lanes of busway (or monorail or whatever) and a 16 foot wide bike trail. But it wouldn't be cheap. 

Little Paint Branch Extension to open soon

By the end of the month, the Little Paint Branch Extension project should be finished. The project will create a connection between the Paint Branch Trail, part of the Anacostia Tributary Trail System, and the Little Paint Branch Trail which is entirely within the Little Paint Branch Park in Beltsville. That trail connects via other bike facilities all the way to Fairland Regional Park near Laurel

The project is called the Little Paint Branch Extension, but the website says it's the Paint Branch Trail that's being extended. It's all in how you look at it I guess.

The Little Paint Branch Trail Extension Project is a 2.1-mile extension of the Paint Branch Trail from Cherry Hill Road to the Beltsville Community Center. Extending the Little Paint Branch Trail will provide a shared use path route across the Beltway and connect two M-NCPPC park facilities: the Paint Branch Stream Valley Park with the Little Paint Branch Stream Valley Park.

This is the first extension of the ATTS since the Anacostia Trail was extended to US-50 in 2012. It's also creates only the 2nd of the system's trails to extend outside the Beltway.

Closing this gap in the Anacostia Tributaries Trail System will create a continuous 75-mile trail route from Fairland Regional Park near Laurel, Maryland to Purcellville, Virginia at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Riverfront at West Hyattsville project to upgrade section of NW Branch Trail

Between the Northwest Branch Trail and the West Hyattsville Metro station, developers are building a multifamily unit and townhouse development. In order to meet the storm water management requirements, a section of the adjacent NW Branch Trail has been temporarily closed so that dirt can be removed from the area and underground compensatory storage can be built. When the work is complete, a better trail with lighting, a new bridge and connections to the new development will be built. 

The project will include a community park along the trail with an amphitheater, an expanded trail where the existing trail is (though shifted a bit) and new paths leading from the trail to the community. The trail will also get trail makers, LED lighting and emergency call stations.

Away from the trail, the project will include an 8' wide hiker biker trail (although elsewhere they call it a bike lane or a sidewalk) along the northside of Little Branch Run, which is the long diagonal street across the development, a 10' wide promenade (also called a sidewalk) along River Terrace Road, the road adjacent to the trail area, and a direct connection to the Metro (not seen on the image above). 

As mentioned before, the trail is being closed because the property needs the area for storm water management. 

The majority of this park space is actually owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) Parks Department. It was dedicated to the Parks Department from the subject property in 1957. The applicant and the Parks Department have come to an agreement where the applicant may use the parkland for some of their stormwater management features, which is crucial because the project site lies within the 100-year floodplain. Properties that lie in the floodplain are required to take extra measures to manage stormwater and mitigate against a higher flooding risk. As a result, an arrangement has been made where the applicant can use dirt from the M-NCPPC property to raise the site out of the floodplain. The applicant will then incorporate underground compensatory storage for the site on the M-NCPPC parcel. In exchange, the parcel in question will be turned into a greenway with improvements made to the adjacent trail. M-NCPPC will retain ownership of this site with a memorandum of understanding in place for the applicant to control the maintenance of the stormwater facility.

As mentioned, the recently closed the trail resulting in a 6-9 month detour (don't worry, no stairs) which can be seen below.

Maryland releases list of 2019 federal grants including bikeshare in PGC

Maryland recently released their annual list of TAP, Recreational Trails Programs and Bikeways grants, and there's much of interest to the DC area as we'd expect. Funded projects in the area include:

• Expand Prince George's County bike share network to implement a portion of Phase 2 and 3B. (See them on the image above)
• Complete preliminary design (35%) for a five foot wide concrete sidewalk and a separated bike lane over approximately 2,700 feet along the north side of Forest Glen Road from Woodland Drive to Sligo Creek Parkway in Silver Spring.
• Final Design of protected bicycle lanes along Rhode Island Ave between Muskogee Street and Greenbelt Road (MD 193).
• Complete a feasibility study for a 1.2-mile shared use path along Scott Drive and Veirs Drive, between Wootton Parkway and Glen Mill Road.
• Feasibility Study for improving a bicycle and pedestrian connection between the WB&A Trail/Odenton Town Center and the BWI Trail.
• Final Design of a half mile long, 10-foot wide shared use path along Emory Lane between Holly Ridge Road and Muncaster Mill Road (MD 115), and along Muncaster Mill Road between Emory Lane and Rock Creek Park.
• Northwest Branch Trail reroute - This project will provide significant trail renovations to severely eroded, damaged, and inoperable trails by constructing new sections of natural surface trail to improve user safety, their ability to explore, and so the user can enjoy the
  natural areas and park facilities. 

Farther away

• Complete design for the 0.8 mile Middle Branch segment located along Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, connecting the Gwynns Fall's Trail to the Inner Harbor Promenade.
• Repair and rehabilitate 10 miles of C&O Canal towpath surface from Nolans Ferry (Towpath Mile 44) to Brunswick (Towpath Mile 54). This project will remove hazards, provide a more durable trail surface, and improve safety.
• Construct Phase 7 of Three Notch Trail alongside Three Notch Road (MD 325) between California MD and Hollywood Road (MD 245).
• Lighting the Borden Tunnel on the Great Allegheny Passage.  Ten LED lighting fixtures will be installed on the tunnel ceiling and a ground pedestal mounted solar array with maintenance free battery system will be placed on the south side of the tunnel.

Busting the clusterfudge. Can we get an Anacostia River Connection to 52nd Ave?

In a set of Christmas Wish List posts that I never completed, I was going to highlight the 12 biggest bicycle dead zones - areas that have to be biked around, like the White House. The biggest of these was was centered on the Tuxedo area of Maryland between Fort Lincoln, Colmar Manor, Cheverly and Deanwood. Here, two highways - the BW Parkway and US 50; two railroads - the Penn Line and Landover Sub; the connections between them; a river; the Arboretum; parks and even Beaver Dam Creek conspire to create a barrier to cyclists that I labeled the Clusterfudge. Even along the edges, Kenilworth Avenue and Bladensburg Road are no picnics to ride on. 

Up until 2016, any trip that would, as the crow flies, pass through the area in red, had to instead go around it on the red line drawn on the map. In 2016, the Anacostia River Trail, the blue line I drew, punched through that area and improved things quite a lot for those going north and south by creating four new connections in the area, but the Clusterfudge is still probably the biggest dead zone in the region; though Arlington Cemetery, with its ever more-limiting rules and ever expanding size is trying to give it a run for its money.

Some help may be on the way. The planned bridge across the Anacostia to the Arboretum and the trail from there to M Street, NE will help a lot. A bike path on the New York Avenue Bridge, a Beaver Dam Creek Trail, and A Fort Lincoln Trail would too, but those are big projects that would take years.

In the short term can we maybe get a trail connection to 52nd Street?

It's not exactly a game changer, but there is no connection to the trail for the 1.5 miles between Beaver Dam Creek and Quincy Run. A connection to 52nd Avenue would break that up and shorten the trip from DC to Cheverly via the trail by about 0.8 miles. A trail connection (the blue line below) would only need to be about 1200 feet to get the job done, and it wouldn't need to be as wide as the rest of the trail.

It could be about 300 feet shorter (the red line) if it could use the access road that connects to the trail in the area (see image below)

As it is now, a trip from DC to Cheverly along the trail requires a ride up to the LLoyd access road. A trail connection to 52nd Avenue would shorten the trip for every destination in the area bounded by Kenilworth Ave, 52nd Ave, Annapolis Rd, Cheverly Rd. and Tuxedo Rd. It would benefit many people with just a short connection.

Then maybe a protected bike lane on 52nd Ave from the trail to Newton St., a bike-ped bridge over the Parkway from Inwood to Viewpoint and a micro-trail from Inwood to the Hospital could follow, creating a complete connection from Cheverly to the trail. 

Wells Run Trail, lots of potential but no current plans

Someone wrote to ask me what I know about the Wells Run Trail and if there were plans to improve it. My first response was to look up what the Well Run Trail is and try to at least figure out what state it's in. So, the answer was that I knew nothing about it.

After some research, I can't say I know much more.

I do know this, the current trail, located in University Park, isn't much of a bike trail. It's narrow. It's isolated and small. 

And it's not really built for cyclists - the connection to Adelphi Road is via a set of narrow stairs for example. It does look like a great way to walk to and from the bus stop on Adelphi or otherwise around the neighborhood. 

But it has potential.

Wells Run flows into the NE Branch of the Anacostia passing through Hyattsville, University Park and Riverdale Park on the way. But oddly, it looks like there is an unnamed stream bed that starts from almost the same spot and flows in the opposite direction to the NW Branch. Thus a trail built along Wells Run and the stream bed; using Wells Boulevard, the Wells Parkway and, on the east side, the stream itself, could become a nice east-west connection between the NE and NW Branch trails. Though something would have to be done about the part where it runs down the middle of East-West Highway. I would go from Riverdale Park to University Hills. That would be a very useful connection.

Wells Run and stream bed in blue

If they were to upgrade the current sections of the trail and connect it to Adelphi Road, that would form a very nice 3 miles of connector trail. 

Sadly, such a trail is currently not in the 2009 PG County Bikeways and Trails Master Plan or the 2009 Hyattsville Bike and Ped Plan. In 2010, after residents became concerned that the stream might flood their homes, the three jurisdictions formed an Inter-Municipal Collaborative Committee on Wells Run which would

• Develop a short-term and long-term stream restoration plan.
• Develop passive recreational enhancements along Wells Run;
• Evaluate storm water plans that may impact Wells Run; and,
• Collect and provide environmental data in support of the above items.

I'm not sure if a MUT is passive, but that's reason for hope. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like much has happened in the last 8 years. Which is too bad, that thing could use some stream restoration. 

A trail along Wells Run, coupled with a utility corridor trail from the Takoma Substation to the NW Branch Trail only blocks from where Wells connects to it, and then continuing north to Metzerott Road, would really tie that whole area together. 

But in short, the Wells Run Trail looks like a pedestrian pathway system, and it will probably stay that for a while. 

Capital Crescent Trail/Purple Line update

There has just been so much going on along the Capital Crescent Trail and Purple Line that I can't keep up. So I'm putting it all into one post.

 

The Talbot Avenue Bridge

 

The 100 year old Talbot Avenue Bridge is going to be removed to build the Purple Line. If you've ever biked between the Georgetown Branch Trail and Bethesda, you've no doubt gone over this bridge. But because it has some historical significance, especially among the black community in the area, the County is trying to figure out how best to preserve it, at one point considering it for a footbridge over a trail or stream. But now it appears that part of it at least will go in along the new extended Capital Crescent Trail. 

Officials at the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) say they tentatively approved, with community input, two artwork proposals for the Lyttonsville station as part of the Purple Line’s $6 million art budget. One of the designs, by Maryland artist David Hess, shows one of the girders cut into two pieces and attached to the sides of the elevator shaft. The other girder would lie on the ground as a short wall between the station and the adjacent Capital Crescent Trail. The girders would be decorated with photos of Lyttonsville residents and other historic images as part of a “sculptural photo album,” according to draft designs.

 

But some longtime residents say the design loses the feeling of a bridge. Instead, they suggested placing the girders along both sides of the trail so walkers and cyclists would still feel like they were going over a bridge.

 

Tim Cupples, Montgomery’s coordinator on the state Purple Line project, said the county will explore the residents’ proposal to install the girders along the trail.

 But even this decisions still seems to be up in the air. 

 

Capital Crescent Surface Trail project

 

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett’s (D) proposed capital budget, released in January, included $3 million to design protected bike lanes in downtown Bethesda for cyclists who can no longer use the Georgetown Branch Trail during five years of the Purple Line’s construction. 

the county first will share “concepts” of the bike lanes with the community this year to get input before designing them, and the lanes should be in place in 2019. Cyclists will have their own stretch of pavement and likely be separated from traffic via plastic posts, she said.

Now is definitely the time to do this, instead of, let's say any time over the prior 20 years of planning. But bygones (technically this wasn't on the books until the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Plan), 

The design for the remaining Capital Crescent Surface Trail project (Bethesda Avenue, 47th Street, and Willow Lane bike facilities) is expected to be complete in FY18 and construction in FY19. The design for improvements along Woodmont Avenue, Montgomery

Lane / Ave, Pearl Street and Norfolk Ave /Cheltenham Drive will continue in FY19-FY20 with construction anticipated in FY19-FY21.

Ourisman Plaza

 

Rather than make the Ourisman Honda dealership in Bethesda knock down a wall that was built on the Capital Crescent Trail right-of-way, the county has agreed to accept about $1.4 million in improvements. 

Those improvements include a new 1,300-square-foot public plaza to be constructed next to where the trail meets Bethesda Avenue, new shoulders along the trail next to the Ourisman property, additional landscaping and a screen on the garage to make it more visually appealing.

I like a good win-win deal, but it seems to me like Ourisman is getting off pretty easy here. 

 

 

 

But good deal or not (and I have no idea), I do think the trail will be better here for it. The deal was approved late last month. 

 

And to add in here, the Barnes and Noble that has long sat across the street from the trailhead closed in January. It will reportedly be replaced by an Anthropologie clothing store.

 

River Road Park

 

After a very long wait, work has finally begun on River Road Park a small park located on the north side of River Road along the Capital Crescent Trail. 

The park near the trail’s River Road crossing will serve as a rest area for cyclists along the 11-mile trail and will feature a stone sitting wall, pergola, greenery and trees,

 

the first phase of the project will involve landscaping the area and adding a curb to discourage unwanted parking.

Purple Line at Sligo Creek

 

The Purple Line will cross Sligo Creek on Wayne Avenue and will intersect with the Sligo Creek Trail three too. Even though the bridge will be reconstructed, the trail won't be rerouted (it would have been nice if it could have crossed under Wayne with the creek). The sidewalks that the trail uses through the area will be rebuilt.. 

 

Finally, there's nothing bike-related about this, but this is the plan for getting the Purple Line under the BW Parkway.

 

Riverdale Park Bridge nearly finished

The Hyattsville Wire reports

A bridge connecting Riverdale Park Station to the Discovery District is slated to open in early 2018.

The bridge will run from Van Buren Street — which goes past Whole Foods through the center of the development — over the CSX railroad to Lafayette Avenue in the southern end of the University of Maryland research park.

The bridge is designed to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists as well as cars, although it remains to be seen how bike-friendly it will ultimately be.

The bridge will also be a short bike or walk from the Purple Line stopon River Road in the Discovery District, which means some residents of the townhomes at Riverdale Park Station may use it to connect as well.

It seems the opening is dependent on negotiations between CSX, which owns the air rights over the tracks, and the city. Why this was not handled before construction I do not know. Here's an older post on it. 

Trails are part of cuts for Montgomery County budget shortfall

Montgomery County is drawing up a savings plan in response to a budget shortfall of nearly $120 million, and it should be no surprise that this means a cut to capital improvement projects in the Department of Parks and Recreation. And that means trails. 

In January, the County Executive released a recommended FY19 Capital Budget and six-year FY19-24 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) that would require a 10.9% reduction in Parks CIP funding. This results in quite a few cuts, and a few of these impact trails. 

The Mathew Henson-Wheaton Trail Collector has been delayed at a savings of $170,000. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's a reference to the proposed trail along the Northwest Branch from Wheaton Regional park to the Matthew Henson Trail. 

To save $530,000 several projects are delayed, including bridge replacements along the Sligo Creek Trail.

$30,000 is cut by reducing the time and ability of staff to design, map, construct and build natural trail projects. 

It appears that some other projects will be spared. Some of the standalone projects will continue to receive funding if they are far along or see high use. The North Branch Trail, a project that will pave and move a natural surface trail from Lake Bernard Frank to Muncaster Mill Road, is the highest such priority standalone project. 

The Little Bennett Regional Park Trail Connector is listed as the #7 standalone project priority.

This project develops a facility plan for a hard-surface trail approximately one mile in length and located on the east side of Frederick Road, MD Route 355 in Clarksburg, Maryland.  The trail is planned to connect the existing asphalt trail from Snowden Farm Parkway near Little Bennett Regional Park Maintenance Yard to the south entry of the proposed Day Use Area 

Meanwhile the Magruder Branch Trail Extension is #10 on the priority list

This project extends the existing Magruder Branch Trail located in the Magruder Branch Stream Valley Park from its current terminus at Valley Park Drive northward to the Damascus Town Center.  The existing trail is 3.1 miles in length, and this project extends the trail an additional 0.75 mile.