More than 1,500 Dominion customers are reported to be without power this morning in Arlington.
The outage appears to be centered around the northwest corner of Arlington, near the border with the City of Falls Church. A number of readers have been reporting power outages and dark traffic lights along Lee Highway.
(Updated at 2:15 p.m.) Police and firefighters responded to the intersection of Lee Highway and N. Monroe Street this morning for an electrical accident.
Initial reports indicate that a worker who was digging with a small front loader struck a high-voltage line. The contact sent sparks flying through the air. The worker reportedly suffered burn injuries from the sparks and was transported to a local hospital.
The franchise owner and a team of contractors were on site today (Monday) to tour the still-empty interior. But a sign on the boarded-up front of the store promised the “Burritofication” of the former French restaurant and long-time Lee Heights fixture, which closed suddenly last summer.
This will be Chipotle’s fifth Arlington location after one opened in June in the Pentagon City Mall food court.
Earlier this year, the county held a public hearing about designating the tiny 7,100 square foot Calloway Cemetery at 5000 Lee Highway a historic district. The cemetery, which dates back to the 19th century, is part of Calloway United Methodist Church, in the Hall’s Hill area.
The Williamsburg Boulevard Water Supply Main project is the second phase of the county’s effort to connect the Ethan Allen pump station to the Minor Hill Reservoir. Part of the water main, from the pump station to north Glebe Road, was completed in 2003. The segment from North Glebe Road to 34th Road North is under construction.
The $5.6 million project was awarded to Alexandria-based contractor Martin & Gass Inc., which will lay the 36-inch water main in Williamsburg Boulevard beginning at 35th Street North and ending at the reservoir. The new water main will provide water supply to Minor Hill, which will allow for maintenance on existing water mains without service disruption, according to an Arlington County press release.
A new burger restaurant is coming to Arlington.
“Burger 7” is coming to the 2500 block of Lee Highway, next to a 7-Eleven store in the old Chickpeas Restaurant space. Burger 7 has an existing location at 7505 Leesburg Pike, in Falls Church and, in addition to the Arlington location, will be opening an Alexandria location later this year.
A pedestrian walk signal at the intersection somehow caught on fire around 11:30 this morning. The fire was minor and eventually burned itself out, but not before passersby caught sight of smoke coming from the signal. As a result of the fire, power was temporarily cut to all traffic signals at the intersection.
As of 12:10 p.m., the lights were operating on battery power and blinking red. Police were on scene assisting with traffic control.
According to a Facebook page, a Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt store is coming to the shopping center. Building permits were issued late last month (May) for the store, located at 2439 N. Harrison Street. Tutti Frutti will replace the former Serendipity store, which sold home furnishings, decorations and gifts.
No word yet on when Tutti Frutti will open, but the Facebook page lists the store’s hours (once it does open) as 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The photo on the left is of the Hicks Store on Lee Highway at N. Culpeper Street, taken in 1960. The store was in an area known as Hall’s Hill — now often called High View Park — which became a predominantly black community when freed slaves settled there shortly after the Civil War. Many family run stores owned by black residents opened in the area during the early 1900s. Hicks store was one of several businesses owned by the Hicks family.
Near the store, the Hicks cemetery is where family members were buried, until the land was condemned in 1959, to accommodate for the widening of Lee Highway west of Glebe Road. The remains were moved to a cemetery in Herndon.
The project has been evolving as developer McCaffrey Interests responds to neighborhood input and objections to the project. Whereas just a couple of months ago the project was to include a specialty grocery and 13,500 square feet of other retail, it now includes just the grocery store, with the retail replaced by 15 row houses along N. Veitch and N. Uhle Streets. The change is expected to reduce traffic around the development.
The project still includes a 10-story, 166-unit, LEED Gold-certified, glass-covered apartment building, complete with a fitness center and swimming pool on the penthouse level. The current plan, which will be discussed at a Site Plan Review Committee meeting at 7:00 tonight, also includes 222 spaces of surface and underground parking for residents and grocery store customers.
Building permits were issued for the restaurant about two weeks ago. A tipster tells us a contractor was out measuring the storefront’s awning today.
This will be Chipotle’s fourth Arlington location and the first here that isn’t within easy walking distance of a Metro. The company’s existing eateries are located in Ballston, Crystal City and Rosslyn. The Lee Highway location could put restaurant in more direct competition with Arlington’s popular, homegrown Mexican eatery, District Taco (5723 Lee Highway).
The proposed buildings would replace the former Bergmann’s dry cleaning plant, at the corner of Lee Highway and N. Veitch Street, and five early 20th century houses across the street from the plant. The homes are also owned by Bergmann’s.
In place of the plant, Chicago-based McCaffery Interests proposes to build a 26,000 square foot, single-story “specialty grocery store.”
