Starting next year, two one-way portions of Crystal Drive are set to be converted to two-way roads — a move that planners hope will prepare the Crystal City area for future development and a proposed transitway.
The first phase of the project will add a southbound lane to the portion of Crystal Drive between 12th Street and 15th Street, just north of the Crystal City water park. It will also convert a one-way section of S. Clark Street between 12th and 15th Streets to a two-way road. Construction on this phase of the project is expected to begin in the spring of 2012 and wrap up in winter 2012.
A second phase is expected to begin construction in fall 2012. That phase will add a southbound lane to the one-way portion of Crystal Drive between 23rd Street and 27th Street. Changes will also be make to 27th Street, which runs between the Courtyard by Marriott and the Hyatt Regency hotels.
“The Crystal Drive Two-Way Conversion project will begin to establish the street network needed to support future development and transit improvements planned by the Crystal City Sector Plan and Crystal City Multimodal Study,” Arlington County said on the project website. “The intent of the project is to improve the navigability of Crystal City by converting Crystal Drive and the surrounding street network from a one-way to a two-way directional roadway.”
In addition to converting traffic lanes, the project will also add new traffic signals, street trees, ADA-compatible intersection upgrades and a new southbound bicycle lane.
Drivers can expect lane closures during the construction project.
Related Posts
- Another Coffee Shop Coming to Crystal City September 16, 2011
- Progress on 2201 North Pershing Drive Project June 3, 2011
- Safety Changes Coming Soon to Walter Reed Drive May 11, 2011
- Streetcars, New Metro Entrance Among Big Changes Coming to Crystal City July 13, 2010
Very much needed…I used to wave down a few wrong way drivers when I used to live in CC.
Happy about the south-bound bike lane between 23rd and 27th. Always ride on the sidewalk and feel bad, because there’s a bike lane, but it’s the wrong way!
I’m glad you do that, which is the right choice in this case. I get seriously concerned for people who bike in the bike lane against traffic, especially on Clarendon/Wilson Blvd’s in Clarendon/Courthouse (which is illegal, might I add).
Uh, it wasn’t that many years ago that Crystal Dr was two way and then they went and changed those parts to one way. – am I right? Anyone gonna admit that was a mistake or a big waste of money?
I don’t think so. The south side used to be one way, then they converted it to two-way. Either way, one-way or two-way, CC proper and the interchanges with Route 1 are a huge [censored] disastrous mess of roads. You can definitely see the influence of 1960′s auto-obsessed urban planning.
It’ll be nice to be able to connect from the north end of CC to Potomac ave. or whatever the newly opened road is.
Good, hopefully this will spread out the traffic trying to get from 23rd to Rt1 in the evening. It should also make it easier to get to Harris Teeter from the the north end of CC.