TheWashCycle

VDOT to present final design for the W&OD trail bridge over Route 29 on Oct 11th

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will host a community meeting to present the final design and aesthetic details for the Washington & Old Dominion Trail Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge over U.S. Route 29 (Lee Highway) in Arlington. The design reflects input received during workshops held on April 5, May 2, and June 13, 2017.

 

The trail bridge is being built as a component of the I-66 Inside the Beltway Eastbound Widening Project. 

 

Thursday, October 11, 2018

6:30-8:30 p.m.

Presentation at 7 p.m.

 

Yorktown High School

5200 Yorktown Boulevard

Arlington, VA 22207

 

Here's what was presented in June.

 

This bridge is the next in a series of projects to grade separate the W&OD Trail. The first was in 1990, when a bridge was built over Route 28 and most recently last year when Belmont Road was built to go over the trail. 

NOVA Parks plan for separating the W&OD

I had a blurb last April about the plan to separate W&OD trail users on foot and those on bike. The day before that published, the TPB approved $274,250 to do just that on a section of trail from N West Street to Great Falls Street in the City of Falls Church (along with some other projects that I'll write about later).

Project will replace .5 mile of 10 foot wide shared use trail with 11 foot wide bicycling trail and 

8 foot wide pedestrian trail separated by a 2 foot wide median.

Design and Engineering work will go on in 2019 and construction in 2020. 

The Falls Church project wasn't fully funded, but when it is it will similarly widen the rest of a 1.2 mile section and it will replace six substandard curb ramps and a narrow trail bridge over Four Mile Run. 

The idea dates back to at least 2014, which is where the image above and the maps of possibly widened trail areas below come from.

 

west section

east section

Speaking of the W&OD Trail, some trail adjacent development could occur in Reston if the Hidden Creek Country Club is developed. It's hard to tell from the images at this link, and I can't find any information on it, but one would hope that whatever happens, a trail connection is built through the development and the trail gets a trail-facing building or greenspace, instead of a back wall. 

W&OD Trail Bridge over Lee Hwy work to start next year

Earlier today there was a post here about the W&OD Trail Bridge over Lee Highway. What I failed to mention was that in early June, VDOT held a meeting on the Inside the Beltway project in which they mentioned a schedule for this. 

They plan to have a public meeting late this year or early next, start work next spring and finish it by summer 2020. Below is the roll plot showing the trail, bridge and surrounding areas.

In addition the Inside the Beltway Project will realign a portion of the Custis Trail in Bon Air, as seen below. Green is the existing trail, pink is the new alignment.

The whole project is to wrap up in October 2021

Six Intersections on the W&OD Trail, and then 12 more

Back in 2012, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) commissioned a study of 6 intersections on the W&OD Trail, including specific recommendations for improvements to each intersection. These 6 intersections were chosen based on user input as the ones at which they felt most uncomfortable. They had low motorist yielding rates, high motorist speed and poor sight lines.

Some general recommendations were made for every intersection that include maintaining visibility by clearing vegetation and adding or maintaining lighting. They also recommended widening the trail at intersections to 14-20 feet to allow large groups of cyclists to cross at once, instead of single file. 

Then there were a series of Site specific recommendations.

Belmont Ridge Road - I'm going to skip this one because they built an overpass over the trail in 2016. 

Sterling Boulevard - The study recommended widening the approach and the median; adding rapid flash beacons instead of signage, improve street and trail marking and shorten the northbound left turn lane so that it starts after the trail crossing.  They also recommended completing the sidewalk network there They did all these things in the summer of 2017. (Before shot) In addition, they now want to build an overpass. 

Wiehle Avenue - The study recommended widening the median curb, adding a 2nd traffic signal to keep cars stopping at Sunset Hills Road from blocking the trail, changing lane markings and signage and narrowing the road to widen the median. None of these things have been done, but the part of the median where the trail has been upgraded.

Hunter Mill Road - Here there were two recommendations, replace a continuously flashing beacon with an actuated rapid-flashing one and adding an advance yield line to the road. Constantly flashing signs have not been shown to provide consistent yielding by motorists, but rapid-flashing lights have shown a 70%-90% improvement in yielding.  These changes have not been made.

Lee Highway - There were a lot of recommendations here, but I'm going to skip those since the plan now is to build a trail overpass. 

Columbia Pike - At Columbia pike, they recommended improving the push button crossing buttons; removing the trail stop signs and adding a bicycle signal; implement an LPI; realigning the trail approach; and adding a "right turn traffic yield to bicyclists and pedestrians" sign to Four Mile Run Drive. Since then, some of these things have been (like the trail alignment and removal of the stop sign) and others have not (like installation of a bicycle signal).  

Meanwhile and more recently, Loudoun County "Board of Supervisors’ finance committee has endorsed a priority list of safety improvements at W&OD Trail road crossings and recommended that the county start looking for partners to help pay for them"

But in 2016, supervisors asked the county staff and consultants to examine the existing conditions of all 41 W&OD Trail road crossings in Loudoun. From there, they asked for a safety study based on traffic on both the roads and the trail. And now, they are recommending near-term improvements at 12 trail crossings across the county.

The third-highest-ranked priority, the South King Street crossing in Leesburg, has recently seen work by the Town of Leesburg.

A consultant study found the highest-trafficked crossing at Smith Switch Road over the weekend, counting 2,491 trail users on a Saturday in August. Ashburn Road was close behind with 2,309. Bicyclists were the majority of trail users, making up 84 percent of the people on the trail on that Saturday, and three-quarters of people on the trail the following Tuesday.

Those riders would be encountering a VDOT-reported average daily traffic of 2,700 vehicles on Smith Switch, and 8,700 on Ashburn Road.

Although the crossing at South Sterling Boulevard saw slightly fewer trail users in the study, it sees more than twice as much road traffic as the next-busiest road in the study, with an average 27,000 vehicles a day. It also saw by far the highest number of crashes during the yearlong study, with 18 reported incidents. No other crossing reported more than two.

The study also ranked highly the crossings at Hirst Road, Berlin Turnpike, North Hatcher Avenue in Purcellville, Dry Mill Road near Rt. 9, Hamilton Station Road, the Rt. 7 eastbound ramp at Rt. 287, Cochran Mill Road, and Ivandale Road. The Rt. 7 and Rt. 287 intersection is planned to become an interchange, with work starting in 2021

NVRPA has been slowly improving the trail with grade separated crossings since the very beginning. The crossing at Route 28 was built in 1989 and the one at Broad Street some time afterward, for example. 

Update: As pointed out in the comments, there are now plans to build a trail overpass at Wiehle by 2021 as well. 

The project, which is expected to cost $10 million, aims to address safety concern at the intersection. Changes include a new bridge, retaining walls and directional access to Wiehle Avenue for trail users.

Wiehle Avenue would be widened from Sunset Hills Road to the properties near the Reston Fire Station. The pavement would be widened for on-road bike lanes in the future.

More here at the project website

 

Silver Line Rail with Trail?

Someone wrote me to ask why there was no trail built with the Silver Line. Normally, I don't cover Fairfax but it's a good question. In the end, I'm not really sure, except that it doesn't seem like anyone every seriously proposed it; which is unfortunate but not as unfortunate as the failure to get one built with the Dulles Access/Toll Road. Oh but also, there is a plan to build one. 

First of all, there is no plan to build a trail in either the Dulles Access/Toll Road right of way or the Silver Line ROW in Fairfax (much of the way, these are the same thing, but not all of it). 

In Transaction 2040, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority's long term plan, they have several projects identified for the Dulles/VA 7 Corridor, but none of the trails projects are in the ROW. The one that best mimics such a trail is a trail along VA 7 from Leesburg to Alexandria. That won't get you to the airport, but it would serve the area north of the W&OD trail and pass right through the center of Tysons Corner. An imperfect trail already exists on the section of VA7 from Reston Parkway to Dranseville Road, with more to come by 2040 I presume. 

The other trail projects in the corridor are 

1. Construct a bike/pedestrian trail starting from the east side of the Van Buren Street/Worldgate Drive intersection, continuing west-east to the future Herndon-Monroe Rail station
2. Construct W&OD Trail Crossing improvements at Crestview Drive
3. Construct Van Buren Street Trail to Dulles Metrorail station (extension from Folly Lick Trail) [I don't think this is a trail to the station at the airport because there is no way you can build a trail from Folly Lick to the airport for $600,000. They must mean the Herndon Station.]
4. Construct the Sugarland Run Trail from existing terminus to pedestrian access pavilion of the future Herndon Metrorail station

So that's probably the best you can hope for without some change in planning. 

I'm not sure the Silver Line was really the best opportunity in Fairfax, instead I think that came in the early 1980's. At that time they were building I-66 (which opened in 1982), and making plans to build the Dulles Toll Road (which opened in 1984 and was widened in 1992) and to extend the Access Road to I-66 (which was completed in 1985). The only one of those projects to get a bike trail was I-66 which was built with the Custis Trail for part of the way. It's too bad that no one had the forethought to extend the Custis Trail to the Toll Road and then along it. I guess we should be happy they left space for the Silver Line.

So, they blew it. And they didn't build a trail with the Silver Line. And there are no plans to build one any time soon. Even the County Bike Plan doesn't have such a trail (west side, east side).

But, Loudon County is planning to build one (oh man, now I'm writing about Loudoun...). In their 2003 Bicycle Plan, they include a Dulles Rail Extension Trail that will run from the "Sully Rd metrorail station to the Rt. 772 metrorail station." Of course, there is no Sully Road metrorail station, but I'm assuming that's Innovation Station. Route 772 is the Ashburn Station at the end of the line. Loudoun County also includes a Dulles International Airport Ring Route in their 2003 Bicycle Plan. Together they will build a loop around the entire airport, connect the loop to the terminal and then link the loop to Ashburn and Herndon roughly along the Silver Line. Here's a terrible image of what that will look like.

Both of these items were listed in the Short Term Recommendations of VDOTs Intermodal Accessibility Measure Study for the Airport and the county's 2011 Comprehensive Plan, but I have no idea when they might start real planning for them.

But wait, there's still hope for more. Though the Dulles Toll/Access Road corridor is pretty constrained, with the area between the sound walls often filled with nothing but the roads and rails, there is still room for a trail. How do I know that? Because the Transaction 2040 plan includes a plan to widen the Dulles Access Road from 4 to 6 lanes from Dulles Airport to VA 123. So if they can find the room for that, then they can find the room for a trail. A trail stretching from the Ring Route to 123 could then connect to the sidepath planned for Great Falls Street/694. Together they would connect the Dulles Corridor Trail to the W&OD Trail at Reston and again in West Arlington. 

So there you go. There is no Silver Line Trail planned for Fairfax, and there is a nebulous plan for one in Loudoun, but there could also be one in Fairfax if people can advocate for it. 

NVRPA considering ways to separate cyclists and pedestrians on the W&OD Trail

At a Arlington County Board meeting late last year, "Paul Gilbert, executive director of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NOVA Parks), said his organization is mulling ways to separate those on foot from those on two wheels."

That's a great idea. I've been on trails like that and I think it makes all users happier. 

“I love the potential separation,” County Board member John Vihstadt said. “I think that will be well-received by both sets of users.”

I couldn't find out anything about the briefing, which may have not occurred in an official Board Meeting. I did find where NVRPA agreed to lease some park land to the County so that they could improve a bus stop east of South Wakefield Lane, but that doesn't appear to impact the trail or cyclists. 

The project will include new curbs, ramps, and gutters and a bench. A fire hydrant will also be relocated as part of the project.

W&OD and FMR Trails in Banneker Park to be improved, then rerouted

In December, Arlington County adopted a framework plan for Banneker Park which includes changes to both the Four Mile Run and W&OD Trails. (last post here)

In the short term the trails will be resurfaced and widened. The width of the shared Four Mile Run and W&OD trails (yellow and black) will be widened from the existing 8’ to 12’, with 10’ minimum. The width will be dependent on site and environmental constraints adjacent to the trails. . In areas where the trail can be safely widened without compromising ecological and site features it will be increased to the full 12’. The W&OD trail leg north of Four Mile Run (red), towards N Tuckahoe St, will be widened to the minimum of 10’, from its current 7’-8’ width. Four Mile Run/W&OD will receive full renovations and upgrades to meet the standards under ADA. 

The W&OD trail north of the bridge will receive basic upgrades, such as ADA improvements, to bring that trail to standard but will not receive full replacement and renovation due to the possible future relocation of the W&OD trail outside of Benjamin Banneker Park. Basic striping, in accordance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) pavement marking standards, furnishings, upgraded lighting, signage and seating etc., will be incorporated with the modified trails. Coordination with NOVA Parks graphic standards will be referenced for detail design for the W&OD portion of the trail.

Trails will be added to separate foot traffic north of Four Mile Run from the W&OD Trail. 

Signage along the multi-use trails will be focused on travel and directional orientation for users to ensure safer usage

Work on this (and the other park changes) will start in the fall and end next year. Although this may already be delayed.

In phase II, the W&OD Trail will be rerouted outside of the park. Community input indicated that the stakeholders would prefer to have the W&OD Trail moved east outside Benjamin Banneker Park. Many community members added the caveat that they would only support this option if there were a safe, grade separated crossing at the intersection of N. Sycamore Street, 19th Street and the I-66 ramp.

Two other proposed realignment concept alternatives presented to the community would keep the trail within the park but would align it directly to Four Mile Run. A new bridge, engineered to meet standards for structures within floodways, would be required to connect the trail with Four Mile Run Trail on the south side of the stream and would be subject to approvals by the County and FEMA.

A feasibility study should be conducted to assess potential alignments for the W&OD Trail. This study should be coordinated in the future between Arlington County and NOVA Parks

The trails will be updated to current standards, possibly with lighting. The park will get new bike racks and possibly a bike repair stand and/or a new water fountain.

TransAction Plan includes and defines bike and pedestrian projects for Northern Virginia

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority adopted a TransAction Plan Update in October and it includes more than two dozen projects meant to make bicycling easier and better. 

Adoption of the new TransAction plan marks the first time the NVTA has updated it since passage of HB (House Bill) 2313 in 2013, which “established a dedicated, sustainable funding stream for transportation in Northern Virginia and allows the Authority to begin fulfilling its mission to address regional transportation challenges.”

Here's a list of the included bike projects

• Construct protected bike lanes on both sides of Route 7 between Alexandria and Seven Corners. Connect with City of Falls Church's bicycle network. Construct trail along Route 7 from Leesburg to Alexandria.
• Introduce and expand bikesharing services in Herndon in coordination with County regional system
• Install up to 24 bikesharing stations along Route 29, Route 7, Sycamore Street, Roosevelt Street, and W&OD Trail in the City of Falls Church.
• Construct multimodal improvements, including new or restructured bus bays, at the current East Falls Church Metrorail Station. These include bicycle and pedestrian connections, improve access and signalization on North Sycamore Street and Washington Boulevard, and bikesharing stations.
• Provide dedicated bicycle facilities, bikesharing and key sidewalk improvements on north-south corridors in Arlington to connect major east-west corridors with each other. Example corridors includes Carlin Springs Road, Walter Reed Drive/Fillmore Street, Harrison Street, Washington Boulevard, Route 110, and others. Network also includes:
  a. Trail parallel to Washington Boulevard between Arlington Boulevard and Columbia Pike;
  b. Rehab of Custis Trail to current VDOT shared used path design and construction specifications in Rosslyn;
  c. Extension of Custis Trail north of I-66 between North Kennebec Street and North Quantico Street;
  d. Long Bridge Park Esplanade extension to Mount Vernon Trail;
  e. Arlington Boulevard trail;
  f. Theodore Roosevelt Bridge connection to Mount Vernon Trail and Marine Corps War Memorial;
  g. Dedicated cycling facility along the Route 50 service road (southside), between North Rhodes Street and North Meade Street;
  h. Expansion of Arlington bicycle commuter routes: Bluemont Junction Trail, Custis Trail, Four Mile Run Trail, Mount Vernon Trail, W&OD Trail;
  i. Improve connections between the County trail network and activity centers, as well as interjurisdictional connections.
• Alexandria Bike and Pedestrian Trails Construction and Reconstruction;
  a. Reconstruct Holmes Run Trail from North Ripley Street to I-395;
  b. Construct trails along local streets in the Beauregard Street and Van Dorn Street corridor. This facility will provide a north-south connection to the City's Holmes Run Trail, running eastwest, and connecting bicycle users to Mark Center corridor;
  c. Construct pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Holmes Run at Morgan Street;
  d. Implement and construct projects in the City's Pedestrian/Bicycle Plan; and
  e. Construct bicycle improvements along Royal Street between Jones Point and Bashford Street, including signage and traffic calming.
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in and around the Columbia Pike corridor, including bikeways, bikesharing, and key sidewalk improvements, to convert SOV trips to, within, and between activity center areas from car to bicycle/pedestrian. Includes parallel bike routes along 9th Street, 11th Street, and 12th Street in the vicinity of Columbia Pike
• Develop a system of coordinated mobility hubs along major corridors to fully integrate transit, bikesharing, carsharing, ridesharing, pedestrians, bicycling, ride hailing, and other shared use services.
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in and around the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, including bikeways, bikesharing, and key sidewalk improvements, to convert SOV trips to, within, and between Metrorail station areas from car to bicycle/pedestrian, and to enable access to/from Metrorail stations to high-density housing and job centers. Includes a designated bicycle lane along North Lynn Street and along Fort Myer Drive between Lee Highway at Rosslyn Circle and Fairfax Drive south of Arlington Boulevard
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in and around Arlington's Blue/Yellow Metrorail corridor, including bikeways, bikesharing, and key sidewalk improvements, to convert SOV trips to, within, and between Metrorail station areas from car to bicycle/pedestrian, and to enable access to/from Metrorail stations to high-density housing and job centers.
• Enhance regional bike routes (W&OD), including separate trails for walking and bicycling, updated crossings to increase safety, and lighting to keep trail open all year in the Falls Church area.
• Improve on- and off-road bicycle and pedestrian facilities, routes, and infrastructure along and adjacent to City of Fairfax corridors to provide better access to Metrorail and regional trails. Expand bikesharing, bike storage, and signage. Includes the extension of the George Snyder Trail.
• Implement bike rental stations in Town of Vienna in coordination with wider County and regional system. Extend Davis Drive (Route 868) from Glenn Drive (Route 864) to Fairfax County line at the future bridge over Dulles Toll Road (Route 267). Realign Rock Hill Road with Davis Drive. Construct a four-lane roadway over the Dulles Toll Road from Sunrise Valley Drive on the south side to Davis Drive extension in Loudoun County on the north side. The project would include pedestrian and bicycle facilities
• Construct a four-mile segment of the high-capacity transitway on Duke Street within City of Alexandria. Reconstruct Duke Street from Wheeler Avenue to Jordan Street with a center left-turn lane. Construct bicycle and pedestrian improvements along corridor
• Implement BRT service between the Pentagon and Kingstowne via Mark Center and Van Dorn Metrorail Station. Includes construction of a four-mile segment of dedicated bus lanes between Van Dorn Metrorail Station and King Street. The project also provides pedestrian and bicycle facilities within the corridor.
• Widen Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) to six lanes between the City of Fairfax and Arlington County. The project would include intersection improvements, including signalization improvements, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
• Multimodal improvements in Falls Church revitalization areas: West Broad Street, Washington Street Corridor, and East End. Improvements will include improved intersection geometry and signalization, improved pedestrian connectivity and accessibility, improved transit stops, and improved bicycle access
• Implement multimodal improvements and improve local connections along Fairfax Boulevard. Enhance transit, pedestrian/bicycle, and roadway facilities and infrastructure
• Implement multimodal improvements and improve local connections along Jermantown Road. Enhance transit, pedestrian/bicycle, and roadway facilities and infrastructure.
• Implement multimodal improvements along Old Lee Highway. Enhance transit, pedestrian/bicycle, and roadway facilities and infrastructure.
• Improved connections and circulation for all modes near the Northfax intersection. Improvements to and along Fairfax Boulevard in the vicinity of the Northfax intersection including pedestrian/bicycle safety,
• Intersection improvements at Fairfax Circle to improve vehicular and pedestrian/bicycle mobility and safety
• Traffic improvements for the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Glebe Road, including signalization, accommodation for pedestrians, and turn lane channelization. Construct improvements at Mount Vernon Avenue and Four Mile Road intersection, including pedestrian/bicycle improvements. Construct pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Four Mile Run between Commonwealth Avenue and Eads Street. Construct Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road intersection safety improvements to accommodate pedestrian and bicyclists, which may entail intersection and parking configuration redesign. Construct a pedestrian/bicycle link from the Potomac Yard Trail to connect to the Four Mile Run Trail on the south side of Four Mile Run, and to the Mount Vernon Trail. Construct Oakville Triangle improvement projects
• Expand multimodal transportation capacity and safety in the Lee Highway corridor, providing viable options to move more people without increasing the volume of single-occupant vehicles. Includes addition of bicycle facilities along Route 29 corridor
• Transit and pedestrian/bicycle connections along Sycamore Street and Roosevelt Street with a bridge overpass connecting to planned redevelopment in Seven Corners.
• Construct a shared used path on both sides of Route 28 from Prince William County line to Dulles Toll Road.
• Construct a trail along Route 29 from Dixie Hill Road to East Falls Church Metrorail Station.
• Construct sidewalks, crosswalks, shared-use trails, and intersection improvements to improve pedestrian access to Silver Line Metrorail stations (Ashburn and Loudoun Gateway) in Loudoun County

New Van Buren Bridge will feature bike markings

The city of Falls Church is rebuilding the Van Buren Bridge over Four Mile Run in Benjamin Banneker Park. A spur of the W&OD Trail connects to Van Buren just south of the bridge and a repair was needed here. The bridge had gotten so bad that the sidewalk had been closed and replaced by a flexpost protected walkway.

During construction, expected to last until March 2018, pedestrian and bike traffic will be redirected onto the trail

The Van Buren Bridge project will replace the existing Van Buren Bridge to accommodate pedestrians along this corridor to the East Falls Church Metro. The current bridge has no pedestrian access and has been identified as “structurally deficient” during its annual inspection. The new bridge will accommodate two lanes of vehicular traffic and have a 12' pedestrian walkway on the downstream side. 

It also appears that it will include bicycle markings that aren't quite sharrows. I'm not sure what these are. I guess they're what you go with when sharrows seem too aggressive. "We want drivers to share the road, but in a modest way. We're not a bunch of hippies."

The crosswalk (which I'll note is not zebra striped) and sidewalk represent a connection between the end of the W&OD Trail spur and the start of a footpath along the south side of Four Mile Run.

10 things to hate about the I-66 trail

The I-66 trail, as currently proposed, is going to be better than nothing. People will use it for both recreation and transportation. It will be fine, a "gentleman's C" if you will. Nonetheless, the thing isn't going to win any awards or have people in other cities asking "why can't we have something like that." It looks like what it is, a trail that was added to - and around - a design for a road. One could imagine how different I-66 would look if they put the trail in first and built the road around it instead. Here, are ten things you might choose to hate about the I-66 Trail. 

The placement inside the sound wall. It wasn't originally supposed to be like this, but as I'm sure you know, VDOT is planning to build the trail between the sound wall and the highway. The problem is not so much that it's beside the highway - as many have noted, lots of trails are built next to highways - it's the placement inside the sound wall that's a problem. This means that the sound from the highway is actually amplified at the trail, and that road exhaust is trapped there too. It means little to no shade. It means that in a crime situation a jogger would have no place to escape to. And it means that neighbors can't build gates or walkways that connect themselves to the trail. Though the trail will be 10-20 feet away, some people might have to ride a mile or more to get to it. I think it is only marginally less safe, but it is terribly less pleasant and much less useful. 

The argument is that the soundwall can't be flipped without taking more land, and I finally figured out what they're talking about . Here's the image of the trail inside the wall, followed by the image of outside the wall.

In the first, the wall+trail need 16.6 to 20.6 feet and in the second 20.6 to 23.6 feet. There are a few differences, but the main issue is that 4' concrete..whatever it is...between the barrier and the sound wall if the trail is put on the outside. This means that 3-4 extra feet are needed. I find it hard to believe that this can't be found with a combination of reasonable acquisitions, narrowing of the trail or narrowing of other items in the right of way.  But we may never know. Fairfax County Supervisor Linda Smyth recently stated in an email that

VDOT/EMP is not going to spend time or money on figuring out the amount of ROW needed to put the trail on the residential side of the sound wall. It would require surveying and preliminary engineering to come up with a reasonable estimate.

So when they say it will take more lane, just know that they don't actually know that for sure and they don't know how much or where. This is why they can't and don't answer those questions. 

They also claim that the outside the wall design prevents utility work, but I find this unconvincing as well unless the utilities are to be below that 4' concrete base. But they haven't done the work mentioned above, so I don't see how they can know that.  It's pretty clear from emails sent by Smyth that this is about people not wanting the trail next to their house and not about engineering.  

Long Detours - The trail suffers from the same problem that complementary trails to a multi-modal project suffer from: it's viewed as secondary. By that I meant the road was designed first and then the trail was added in afterward. How different it would look if they designed the trail they wanted and then built the road around it. Alas, this process leaves cyclists with long detours. At Fairfax County Parkway, for example, they have to travel north, south and west if they want to go east. (The trail is the lime green line). A cyclist travelling on the path through this section will travel about 2100' farther than a car on I-66 will.  And they have to make an at-grade crossing of Fairfax County Parkway.

No direct W&OD Trail connection - despite the fact that the W&OD trail passes through the project area, the I-66 trail doesn't connect to it directly. Instead it peters out more than a mile away at the intersection of Gallows Road and Stenhouse Place (below), where a "potential shared use path" could someday connect the east end of the I-66 trail to the W&OD Trail. Until then, this is your connection. 

And while we're at it, it sure would have been nice if this had included a new W&OD Bridge to straighten out the trail along the old RR right of way (the red line below).

Connectivity opportunities missed - The trail has more missed connections that a Valentine's Day issue of the City Paper. It could easily connect to Lotus Lane in Centerville, Heron Dr, Crown Rd, Rosemallow Circle, Fair Oaks Mall, etc...but it doesn't. And the connection to Dunn Loring Metro involves going north a block, crossing Gallows at grade and then going south two blocks. 

Here it passes beneath Wapples Mill Road, which appears to have a bike facility that suddenly stops, without connecting to it.

Or here, where the trail could be easily connected to Quail Creek Lane if a connection were built across the red line and up the right side of the image below.

Gaps - There's a gap in the trail from Nutley to Blake, and another from Route 50 to West Ox. Those sections are to be built by VDOT/FXDOT as part of other projects but I'm not sure what will fill them. Trail? Bike lanes? Sharrows? They look to be on-road facilities that follow a longer path. That one of these gaps is in the area near the Vienna Metro is only more disheartening.

Crossing over -  At Route 50, the trail crosses from the north side to the south side and then dead ends. At the other end of this gap, it crosses back over to the north side. Why not stay on the north side?

Close up of the transition to the south side

South side route

The break at Stringfellow - In order to avoid a stormwater management pond, the trail will hit Stringfellow Road at two different places. Trail users will need to cross at grade and then use this sidepath. Instead of going over Stringfellow like drivers will. 

The trail ends at Centreville - I-66 expansion goes on to Haymarket.  Sure, there are plans to extend the trail as well, with work performed by VDOT, FXDOT, Fairfax County Park Authority and Northern Virginia Parks Authority, but I suspect this will mean a lag in completion. 

For most of the way, the trail is only on one side. Maybe hate is too strong for this, but a trail on both sides would serve many more destinations. 

The proposer is allowed to use reduced trail widths.

The trail is still going to make it easier to bike through the area, and will likely serve many cyclists, runners and walkers, but it isn't anywhere near as good as it could be.