Members of the public can weigh in on proposed improvements to a stretch of S. George Mason Drive that’s being studied.
The road renovation project from Arlington Blvd to the Fairfax County border is part of the South George Mason Drive Multimodal Transportation Study, which aims to “identify improvements” along this “key corridor,” according to the project’s website.
A temporary roundabout along Military Road has garnered strong feelings as a deadline for community feedback nears.
The pilot project at Military Road and Nelly Custis Drive launched in October, with bollards in place to direct traffic around the center, and has reduced speeds on all approaches, according to data the county recently released. Benefits to pedestrians are less clear, as vehicle rates were varied and there were small sample sizes for pedestrian crossings.
The Arlington School Board is set to consider a $1.6 million contract for safety upgrades to the entrance of Gunston Middle School.
At its meeting on Thursday, Board members will also consider approving a preliminary budget of $2.7 million for three other entrance projects.
There is a new sign of progress on the 30-year-old project to build a boathouse in Arlington.
In anticipation of planning and design work kicking off this year, the Arlington Boathouse Foundation — an organization that exists to ensure residents one day can launch non-motorized boats, such as kayaks, into the Potomac from the county’s shoreline — has launched a new website.
The leadership of Mount Olivet United Methodist Church near Ballston is looking to do something about its parking lot.
The 120-spot surface parking lot fronts N. Glebe Road and is separated from the church, located at 1500 N. Glebe Road, by 16th Street N.
A trio of Arlington intersections could soon be getting some new traffic signals and pedestrian safety improvements.
This Saturday, the Arlington County Board is set to review a $2.3 million contract to replace traffic signals that hang from wires to those attached to poles, or mast arms. The improvements also include wider sidewalks, accessible curb ramps and high-visibility crosswalks.
Arlington County plans to dredge stretches of the Four Mile Run and lower Long Branch Creek channels to alleviate potential flooding.
The project targets sections of the waterways near Mt. Vernon Avenue, bordering the City of Alexandria, where U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) determined soil deposit levels were “unacceptable” for stormwater management.
Update at 4 p.m. on 3/15/22 — President Joe Biden has signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill with funding for three projects in Arlington.
In the 10 months it took for the funding to pass, Arlington County substantially completed two of the projects: repaving parts of the Bluemont Junction Trail and replacing a pedestrian bridge in Glencarlyn Park.
This week, locals can share their thoughts on a county project to make a segment of 28th Street S. near Gunston Park more walkable.
The proposed “Neighborhood Complete Streets” project aims to improve the existing sidewalk, curb ramps and transit stops between S. Meade Street and 26th Street S., near Gunston Middle School and the nearby community center, park and playing field space.
A newly-reopened segment of the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail in Falls Church boasts a feature that could be replicated in Arlington: separate paths for cyclists and those on foot.
Regional parks authority NOVA Parks widened just over one mile of the trail through the Little City in order to accommodate separate tracks. The organization celebrated the completion of the five-year, $3.7 million project this morning.
Arlington County's transportation division is kicking off its ambitious plan to eliminate traffic deaths with a series of relatively quick safety projects.
For now, most of those projects appear to be in North Arlington.
Four months ago, the Arlington County Board adopted a five-year action plan that aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries, known as "Vision Zero." The plan lays out a systematic approach to safety improvements, addressing the most urgent needs through data analysis, equity and community engagement.
These improvements vary in scope: "quick-build projects" address immediate needs quickly using low-cost materials, while larger-scale projects require funding from the county's Capital Improvement Program or grants. Others include pilot projects and regular maintenance work.
"We're focusing initially on small-scale operational improvements... a small but important part of program," said Dennis Leach, the director of transportation for the Department of Environmental Services.
Residents will see upgrades such as curb and median extensions, improved bus stops, curb-and-gutter repairs, new ramps and new high visibility crosswalks. DES has already completed eight "quick-build" projects and 11 are underway, according to its website.
Staff identify projects by analyzing crash data and considering reports by police, Arlington Public Schools and community members. They are constructed on a rolling basis.
For example, this month, staff completed a new mid-block crosswalk across N. Ohio Street that will improve access to Cardinal Elementary School and Swanson Middle School School. Staff are now installing a crosswalk with accessible curb ramps over Sycamore Street for better access to Tuckahoe Park and Tuckahoe Elementary School.
Of the 19 completed and under-construction projects, only three appear to be in South Arlington. One Twitter user mapped out the geographic spread of these projects, raising questions about how these projects are chosen and when DES will make its way south, given that equity is a core tenant of Vision Zero.
https://twitter.com/CarFreeHQ2/status/1442889831034597379
Leach said that could be because there are a number of older community and school requests being worked through.
"I think there's an issue of a pipeline of small projects that may have gotten their start in early years," Leach said. "What you see in the pipeline of quick-build projects has been built up over years... These projects may have gotten their start before Vision Zero was adopted."
Transportation and Operations Bureau Chief Hui Wang said these projects are "a very small, skewed piece of the transportation program" because they don't show large-scale investments, such as those on Columbia Pike.
"When we're talking about balance, equity, we have to make sure that we're not looking at it through a shaded lens," she said.
Leach agrees.
"[Columbia Pike] is our single largest focus areas, as it has some of our oldest infrastructure," he said. "In other parts of the county, like the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, private development builds a lot of the infrastructure. In Columbia Pike, until recently, there's been little private development -- there's more now -- but it's been left to county to actually make those investments in advance of redevelopment."
When asked if certain communities generate more traffic reports than others, Wang said DES doesn't map out community reports because it's hard to categorize them and her team doesn't have the resources for that.
"My team is focused on the engineering part -- our goal is trying to get things done," she said.
The data-based approach helps weed out what is a perceived safety risk versus actual safety risks, Wang noted.
"We use crash data to identify real problems," she said. "We're using data as a guiding force, focusing on high-injury networks."
Chris Slatt, who is president of transportation advocacy group Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County, said it's not surprising that initial projects will skew toward North Arlington.
"Complaint-driven processes are well-known to reflect the biases of whom within the community is best equipped to spend precious time and energy complaining, so we would fully expect that method of identifying projects to skew toward the more affluent areas of Arlington unless staff works intentionally to correct that bias," he said.
Marymount University’s Main House on its North Arlington campus has a sprawling front lawn once again.
On Sunday, the university wrapped up two weeks of construction that turned the concrete parking lot at 2807 N. Glebe Road into a green space. Now, Marymount leaders envision the school community using the space for recreation and picnics.
