TheWashCycle

Mount Vernon Highway Trail Project is underway, to be completed this winter

In May, Fairfax County started working on the Mount Vernon Highway Trail Project. The project will build a 10-foot wide sidepath along parts of Mount Vernon Highway between Grist Mill and Washington Mill Park. 

This $6.5 million, two-mile stretch is part of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail between Richmond Highway (Route 1) and Southwood Drive and in accordance to the Countywide Trails Plan.

It will also build a 14' trail bridge over Dogue Creek. There are some existing, and shoddy, trail segments and these will not be rebuilt as part of this project. 

Relocations of utilities began in June 2021 and are expected to be completed by September 2021. Utility relocations including gas, electric, and communication lines are necessary to accommodate the proposed trail. The Washington Gas line relocation is in process. The construction of the trail project is expected to start Fall 2021.

The project is to be completed in Winter 2022.

NPS Trails Study - Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail

The National Park Service's National Capitol Region (NCR) recently released a draft version of its "Paved Trails Study", which serves as a plan for how NCR sees the paved trail network, both within and outside of the parks, developing in the future and as an update to the 1990 plan. In addition to identifying several high priority capital projects, the NPS Paved Trails Study also identifies some lower priority capital projects which it groups by park.

Comments are open until May 19th.

Here are all the paved trail projects identified for the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail

Short term (2-5 years)

1. (P1.1) Complete multi-use trail facility between Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens and Woodlawn
2. (P1.2) Pursue designation of POHE from C&O Canal terminus with Rock Creek Park Multiuse Trail within the National Mall area and connecting to the 11th Street Bridge, linking up to the South Capitol Street Trail.

Mid-term (5-10 years)

1. (P3.1) Develop a local trailhead at Fort Washington Park
2. (P3.1) Develop a local trailhead at Harmony Hall Community Center
3. (P3.1) Develop a local trailhead at Fort Foote Park

Abandoned since 1990 are the following

1. Develop the Potomac Heritage Trail from Oxon Cove to National Harbor (though there are elements in the new plan oriented toward connecting the two)
2. Extend the Potomac Heritage Trail south from National Harbor (then Port America) as a paved trail to Fort Foote.
3. Install a paved trail through Fort Foote using an existing service road alignment
4. Build the paved Potomac Heritage Trail across the mouth of Broad Creek near Harmony Hall and connect it to the Henson Creek Trail
5. Develop a gravel hiking trail near the Potomac shoreline along Piscataway Park 
6. Encourage PG County to make an on-street spur trail to Fort Washington

The scaling back of the Potomac Heritage Trail from a Maryland side Mt. Vernon Trail to...whatever it is now, is perhaps the most shocking change in the last 25 years.

The proposal for the Wilson Bridge shows a trail along the Potomac shore with a spiral connection from the north side of the bridge to the trail that would have made for a much shorter trip to DC. Sigh...

NPS Trails Study - National Capital Parks East

The National Park Service's National Capitol Region (NCR) recently released a draft version of its "Paved Trails Study", which serves as a plan for how NCR sees the paved trail network, both within and outside of the parks, developing in the future and as an update to the 1990 plan. In addition to identifying several high priority capital projects, the NPS Paved Trails Study also identifies some lower priority capital projects which it groups by park.

Comments are open until May 19th.

Here are all the paved trail projects identified for the National Capital Parks East. The NPS study is about paved trails, which it defines as asphalt or concrete trails that serve pedestrians and cyclists of all abilities. While the C&O Canal Towpath and the Fort Circle Hiker Biker Trail are not paved, NPS has included them in this study due to their regional significance. 

1. (E1.1) Develop an on-street connection between Shepherd Parkway along Blue Plains Drive SW and DC Village Lane to Oxon Hill Farm Trail - this is a high priority project and was covered in this earlier post. 
2. (E1.2) Improve connection from Audrey Lane and Forest Heights Elementary School to Oxon Run Park and Oxon Hill Farm Trail 
3. (E1.3) The South Capitol Street Trail 
4. (E1.4) Construct an off-road connector from the Suitland Parkway Trail to the Fort Circle Hiker-Biker Trail
5. (E1.5) Develop an off-road trail along Fort Davis Drive SE and Fort Dupont Drive SE with a connection to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail under I-295
6. (E1.6) Connection from the Fort Circle Hiker-Biker Trail to the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station
7. (E1.7) Connection from the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail to the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station
8. (E1.8) Develop an on-street facility from Oxon Hill Farm Trail across 495 to Oxon Hill Road and Harborview Avenue (in Prince George's Co.); improve signage and crossings; connect to the POHE - this is a high priority project and was covered in this earlier post. 
9. (E1.9) Develop an on-street trail (along 13th SE and Dogwood Street) to connect the improved Oxon Run Trail to the Suitland Parkway Trail through Saint Elizabeth's  with a link to Metro.
10. (E3.1) Develop a regional trailhead facility with bikeshare at Oxon Hill Farm
11. (E3.2) Develop a regional trailhead facility with bikeshare at Poplar Point Park
12. (E3.3) Develop a local/NPS trailhead facility at Fort Dupont Park
13. (E5.1) Conduct a feasibility study to establish an offroad trail facility along Oxon Run extending through D.C. and MD linking to Pennsylvania Avenue, SE and the Congress Heights Metro Station
14. (E5.2) Conduct a feasibility study for extending the Suitland Parkway Trail from the D.C./MD line to the Henson Creek Trail, and to also address upgrades to the D.C. portion of the trail - this is a high priority project and was covered in this earlier post. Interestingly, the Henson Creek Trail doesn't extend to the Suitland Parkway, so this shoud really be an added part of this project.
15. (E5.3) Work with Prince George's County to explore the feasibility of a trail along the Baltimore Washington Parkway (or other nearby corridor) to connect Washington to Baltimore

A few things I'd like this to pull forward from the 1990 plan are

• Extend the Fort Lincoln Trail to the Anacostia and take it across the river either on or underneath the US-50 (New York Avenue) Bridge
• Extend the Kenilworth Park trails east along Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue to the Mavin Gaye Park Trail
• Building a trail from Buzzards Point along the shoreline of Fort McNair (I know, fat chance, but in 1990 they thought it was possible) to the SW waterfront
• Urge appropriate agencies to implement long-standing open space plans by opening up the Potomac shoreline to trail use from Oxon Cove/Wilson Bridge to the Douglas Bridge through Blue Plains, NRC and JB Anacostia-Bolling. [Again, fat chance. But interesting that this seemed to be the policy at the time, and so how it was that a direct connection from DC to the Wison Bridge was missed remains mysterious]

Then, of course, there is the EOTR Fantasy map. Key among them:

• A trail along the abandoned railroad to Blue Plains

 

 

Oxon Hill Road construction to start this week

The long-awaited reconstruction of Oxon Hill Road will start this week, according to signs posted along the road by the Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T) of Prince George's County.  The $14 million project will add bike lanes to the 1.5-mile section of roadway extending from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail south to Ft. Foote Road.  A few traffic lights will be replaced with roundabouts.

This project will have almost immedate benefits for some cyclists who wish to ride from the Wilson Bridge south to Fort Washington.   The worst section of roadway between the bridge and the fort for cyclists is the first mile on Oxon Hill road, which has 10-foot lanes, no shoulder, and drivers who often ignore the 3-foot rule when passing cyclists riding to the far right, and lay on the horn when cyclists use full lane.   When I suggested adding "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs, the DPW&T safety director responded that they prefer that cyclists not ride Oxon Hill Road until the construction is complete.  Nevertheless, the construction barriers will provide drivers (and hopefully cyclists) with the optical hint that bikes should use the full lane.

The bicycle accommodations for Oxon Hill Road will not be perfect.  The rotaries are being designed to encourage novice cyclists to ride onto a sidewalk and cross the streets as a pedestrian, but DPW&T has tentatively agreed to refrain from posting a sign stating that the bike route goes onto the sidewalk.  There will be some door-zone bike lanes; but DPW&T is open to marking the hazard if the state will pay the cost for the extra striping (and the door-zone bike lanes account for less than half of the section of rebuilt road).

(Jim Titus is a cycling activist from Prince George's County)

Prince George's Residents Ask Commission for More Trails

More than one quarter of the people who testified spoke up for trails at last week’s budget hearings of the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Fort Washington.  Most of these speakers mentioned trails as one of the things that the Commission needs to support.  Two speakers focused entirely on trails. 

WB&A Trail

Representing WABA, I urged the Commission to fund a design study to extend the WB&A trail two miles to the west across US‑50 and the Capital Beltway. (See map). Extending the WB&A across US‑50 and the Capital Beltway would immediately improve the usefulness of the trail because the Beltway is often a serious barrier to mobility. It would also provide a route to the New Carrollton Metro. On the broader scale, extending the WB&A across the Beltway is a key step toward the eventual goal of a trail between the WB&A and the Anacostia River.

Because this extension would be along MD-704, the State Highway Administration is likely to fund the construction.  These upgrades are at the top of the county priority list sent to SHA this year, so a design study would have a good chance of moving the project along.  I did not discuss the extension of the WB&A into Anne Arundel County because the Commission has already authorized funds for a design study, but the WABA blog summary of the testimony also discusses recent developments on that extension: We are concerned that Anne Arundel County wants a developer to build houses on top of the right of way while constructing an expensive detour for reasons that have never been officially articulated

Potomac Heritage Trail

Mark Holt of the Southern Prince Georges Trails Coalition reported that the Piscataway Creek Trail in Fort Washington (part of the Potomac Heritage Trail) is moving forward.  The first segment of the trail will be in Fort Washington National Park  (For  the last two years NPS and M-NCPPC have been passing their memorandum-of-understanding back and forth with Mr. Holt regularly calling officials to make their edits and move it along.)  Holt urged the Commission to keep moving on plans to extend the trail up Piscataway Creek to Clinton.  He also reminded the Commission that Prince Georges County is failing to make full use of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail:

We also strongly urge that bicycle and pedestrian access to National Harbor and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge be improved as rapidly as possible. Hundreds of thousands of people have used the new Wilson Bridge bicycle/pedestrian crossing since it opened two years ago, but the trail still basically dead-ends at Oxon Hill Road. Several workable ideas have been proposed to link the existing trail to the rest of Oxon Hill and neighborhoods to the south, and these need to be implemented. For example, the Peterson Companies, developer of National Harbor, is obligated to build a trail along Oxon Hill Road, but plans for this project remain in limbo.    

For most practical purposes, the the Wilson Bridge is the gateway to the Potomac Heritage Trail of southern Maryland.

Folly Branch

In written testimony, representing some of the trail users around Glenn Dale, I urged the Commission to retain two improvements to the Folly Branch Trail, which will eventually run from around the Seabrook MARC station to Upper Marlboro.

First, the budget for this year included a short segment along Folly Branch that would connect the WB&A Trail to the Vista Gardens shopping center, by using the overflow culvert to get under MD-450.  Several years ago, the neighborhood next to the shopping center blocked the segment of the Folly Branch Trail to the shopping center, and persuaded Councilman Hendershot to support them. You can see the trail bed next to a closed gate near Panera Bread.  The new segment will go under MD-450 and then straight up that trail bed, while the main Folly Branch Trail will go on the East side of the swamp. The neighborhood of big houses on the other side of the swamp from Vista Gardens wanted a trail to the shopping center--it was just the townhouses near the shopping center that did not want the trail.

Second, the budget for 2014-2015 has a trail from Glenn Dale across or around Folly Branch to the existing Folly Branch Trail parallel to Forbes from MD-450 almost to the Amtrak line.  That will give Glenn Dale a trail to the Seabrook MARC station.  A few  people in Lincoln might find this a more direct route to Seabrook as well. Conversely, people in parts of Seabrook might prefer this way of getting to  the WB&A. It will also create a terminal loop (until WB&A is extended) for people coming from Bowie on the WB&A along MD-450.  (See map).

(Jim Titus is a member of WABA’s Board of Directors.  The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily the views of WABA.  For a blog on some of the same topics that does represent WABA’s official view, please see the WABA web site .)

Oxon Hill Road to be redesigned with bike lanes and traffic circles.

This is a welcome improvement. 

Construction to improve safety and bike and pedestrian access on Oxon Hill Road could begin in the spring as part of an agreement with the community to maintain the residential character of the area, Prince George’s County officials said.

Hubbard said construction is expected to be completed two years from the start of construction.

The project will include about a 2.5-mile stretch of road from just south of National Harbor to Fort Foote Elementary School. Hubbard said the project will include bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the road. Space also will be provided for on-street parking.

Traffic circles will replace several existing signals to improve traffic flow on the road, she said. Residents had requested traffic circles, because lights alone did not alleviate traffic on the road.

Hubbard said the project’s estimated cost is about $14 million, with funding coming from the county’s Capital Improvement Program.

Oxon Hill Road has had a long history of being an unsafe road, said Jim Hudnall, public relations officer for the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club, an organization that promotes bicycling and bike safety in southern Maryland.

Hudnall said he and his wife, Jane — Fort Washington residents who live near Oxon Hill Road — have had problems sharing the road with motorists when they have biked. People trying to get to bus stops often have trouble crossing the street with oncoming traffic, he said.

While it seems that everyone is happy with this solution, there is still a push to move the Potomac Heritage Trail to the road and away from the Potomac.

She said that she would like to see the Potomac Heritage Trail, part of a network of locally managed trails between the Potomac River and the Allegheny Highlands, run along Oxon Hill Road.

“We have two primary concerns: protecting the value of homes in the community and addressing the rush-hour back-ups,” Bick wrote. “The Potomac Heritage Trail would avoid the need to widen the road. . . . The biggest advantage would be saving the historic character of the road and the value of our homes and our community.”