WWB Bike/Ped Lane Opens

And I was one of the first on it!

It's been announced for at least a month that the bike/ped lane on the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge was opening on June 6. Later on, it was put out that the public opening would be at 1pm (after an invite-only opening ceremony).

After several "antsy bikers" approached the west end asking if it was open, plus the Alexandria Police wanting an opening-related lane closure on the Washington St Bridge Deck finished, the clean-up of the ceremony area (on the bridge deck over the Beltway on the Maryland side) was accelerated, and the lane was opened to the public around 12:30pm after some brief comments by Bryan Johnston, the WWB project public affairs coordinator.

Yours truly was the 6th person "from the public" on the bridge after it opened on the Virginia side, and the 3rd one across the bridge (I passed a few bikers on the way).

The ride across into Maryland was fairly quick, as it's mostly a downhill grade heading east, plus there was not a lot of bike/ped traffic on the bridge just yet. The bridge deck over the Beltway on the Maryland side includes a huge U-turn (possibly to accommodate emergency vehicles) and also a 360-degree spiral.

At present, the paved path continues underneath the Beltway connection, then up the hill to Oxon Hill Rd where it ends. It's obvious that a trail connection directly into National Harbor is intended, but at present is not completed. A fine aggregate base has been put down on the SHA-owned segment, then a base of what looks like crushed seashells on the National Harbor side. It's too early to tell if the whole thing will be paved or not, but it would make sense for it to be.

By the time I got back to the bridge from National Harbor, the path was thick with bicyclists, as several local biking groups had organized rides across the bridge, in addition to other area residents checking out the new route.

Near and on the drawbridge portion of the bridge, the DC/Maryland and DC/Virginia boundaries were embedded into the concrete on the bike/ped lane. Oddly enough, the Virginia marker is buried under some thermoplastic striping (the striping being a caution for the drawbridge span). Photos are on the photo page.

I took dozens of photos, 126 of which are now posted on my WWB Bike/Ped Lane photo page, split into 3 subpages.

A few WWB-related notes

As a few of you may know, I live very close to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (I-95/I-495/DC Beltway across the Potomac). I've been more or less watching the progress on the bridge project, and the related interchange and Beltway reconstruction projects on either end, since I moved here. Especially since I use the WWB every day on my commute. It's been neat to watch the progress on both the bridge (seeing the new Thru Lanes open back in December) and the approaches on either end (moreso on the Virginia side, as most of the Maryland-side ramps were already built when I moved here).

Anyway, here's a few notes from over the past week:

A few items of note lately with the projects related to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge:

- Early last week (around Monday the 11th, give or take a day), the ramp from SB US 1 to the Outer Loop Thru Lanes opened.

- Around that same time, the configuration of the Outer Loop Local Lanes was changed slightly, to where the 3rd lane going across the bridge begins with the on-ramp from NB US 1. Not sure if this is a temporary or permanent setup...it looks temporary given that the right shoulder at that merge point (NB US 1 ramp onto the Local Lanes) is blocked off for some sort of work.

- On Friday, the right lane on NB US 1, before the ramp to access the Beltway, was reopened. It had been closed for the past 2 months.

- The new ramps from the Outer Loop to Telegraph Rd/Kings Hwy/Huntington Ave are progressing nicely. Paving of the approaches is now underway as well. According to the project website, these ramps are supposed to open by the end of this month (and will make my drive home from Springfield or points west a little easier).

- Permanent pavement and striping is in progress in some areas (except for the Thru Lanes themselves, most road surfaces through the project area have been old pavement/temproary pavement/base pavement, and not the permanent top layer). Areas that have had permanent pavement and striping added lately include the loop ramp from the Inner Loop to SB US 1, the Inner Loop just prior to the Thru/Local Lanes split (east of MD 210). Judging from the bridge-approach milling I've seen, permanent pavement for the Inner Loop Local Lanes in Maryland is in progress.

- The bike/ped path on the north side of the WWB is set to open on June 6. I have duty that weekend, but still intend to check out the trail one of those afternoons (Saturday the 6th or Sunday the 7th). I also intend to host a "meet" of fellow road/highway hobbyists after the trail opens, as it'd make a great vantage point for touring the WWB.

- No word yet on when the path connection to US 1 will open (it's being "unofficially used" already). The WWB website currently says "Late Spring 2009", but we're already into late spring, so who knows...

Am I strange to come up with fantasy freeways?

I'm sure some people would think so. For one, it'd be anathema to the anti-freeway types. Some people think it's strange that my hobby involves roads and highways to begin with. Then there's the realist in me that wonders just how I can come up with roads that wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being built.

It's gotta be the roadgeek in me...thinking of the "what if" scenario. Upgrades of existing congested highways, freeways that were proposed at one point then subsequently cancelled, completely pie-in-the-sky proposals, etc etc. "Boy, it'd be great if this road existed!"

So with that, I've revised/re-created a Fantasy MN 3. Updated the exit list graphics, added a map of the routing, and included a detailed route log...items I'm trying to introduce as "standard".

Definately some nice-to-haves...especially 4 lanes, a bypass of Rosemount, and a direct connection to US 52. Do I think it has a chance? Not at all. But that's the novelty of it, I guess...

More weekend strangeness...

After a lengthy daytrip today, I found more to add to the strangeness category:

- Sprawl up the wazoo in northern Stafford County. The SR 610 corridor was thick with it.

- A VDOT-installation red left arrow signal, at SR 610/SR 648 in Stafford County. Strange because VDOT's standard has long been a normal red ball for left turn signals.

- Numbered bike routes in southeastern Culpeper County.

- Froggie's "requisite gravel roads" (it's almost a requirement for me to wind up on a gravel road on my roadtrips): SR 672 and SR 724 in Culpeper County.

- The newer segment of US 340, between BUSINESS US 340 and US 211 West (southwest of Luray) has both full paved shoulders and a few "No Passing Zone" signs delinating the no passing zones. While neither is unheard of on Virginia highways, they're not exactly common either.

- Luray has what looked to be a relatively new bike/ped path running north-south through most of town, and generally following Hawksbill Creek. On this warm, sunny (albeit somewhat humid) day, it was getting a lot of use.

- At Overall (there's a place name for ya...ranks up there with "Thoroughfare" along VA 55), VDOT built a brand new bridge last year for US 340 crossing Overall Run. The old bridge, built ca. 1937 (don't remember the year on the plaque offhand) is still intact, complete with pavement markings, though the northern approach has been all but obliterated (the southern approach is part of the new access to SR 665). If that wasn't enough, there's a neat railroad trestle right next to (and sitting about 20 feet higher than) the two road bridges.

- And that's not all in Overall, as there's also a pair of "circle 340 shields" where SR 665 meets US 340.

- Just to the north in Bentonville is what looks to be a relatively new US 340 cutout shield.

- In eastern Shenandoah County, within range of Front Royal and sandwiched between two mountains (Green and Massanutten), lies the roughly-20-mile-long Fort Valley. There's only a small handful of ways in/out of the valley, all of which appear to involve either crossing mountains or threading through narrow, twisty, and somewhat steep gorges that creeks have cut through the mountains. Still, it was a very scenic drive.

- One of the above-mentioned mountain crossings...SR 675 across Massanutten Mountain...has a very awesome view looking out over Luray and part of the Page Valley (South Fork of the Shenandoah River).

A strange sight today...

Putzing around Prince William County today, I found something quite strange. SR 619, at least between I-95/Exit 150 and SR 646 near Independent Hill, has mileposts along the side of the road. The mileposts count down as you head northwest away from I-95 and are high enough to suggest that "Mile 0" is where SR 619 begins at US 29 in Gainesville.

This is the only time I've ever seen mileposts on a secondary route in Virginia. Heck, most of their primary and U.S. routes don't even have mileposts.

Unfortunately, it was drizzling/light rain out so I don't think I got a good photo. But I'll definately have to head back.

Kansas and Nebraska photo additions

Continuing my apparent recent trend of daily updates, I've added Kansas and Nebraska gallery pages tonight.

In Kansas, I've added 13 photos of KS 7 (K-7 for you nitpickers) between US 36 near Troy and Atchison.

In Nebraska, I've cleared out the rest of my Nebraska photos, adding 14 photos of US 20 between the Wyoming line and US 385 near Chadron.

Lastly, I took the I-480 Omaha photos off the default Nebraska page and gave them their own page, in a Simpleviewer format.

One thing I forgot...

For the transit hacks out there (especially those who like maps of fantasy transit systems), I've put my Fantasy Twin Cities system into a PDF format.

Webpage photo updates

The first of what I hope to be many blog posts about updates to my websites.

A few weeks ago, I uploaded the rest of my Wyoming photos, from the 2005 summer vacation Meaghan and I took out West. New pages were created for I-25, I-80, US 20, and WY 220. All were done in the Simpleviewer format I've started to use in recent months. My US 30 and US 287 pages were also updated to the Simpleviewer format. Lastly, I added the rest of my miscellaneous photos.

Over this past weekend, I did the same with my Utah photos from the same 2005 vacation. New pages were created for US 6 (from north of I-70 to UT 96), US 89 (Logan to Garden City), and the US 89/US 91 duplex. And the rest of my miscellaneous photos were also added.

Tonight, I updated two of my Minnesota photo pages. Added 1 eastbound and 4 westbound photos to the I-94 page, including new termini photos for both MN 100 and MN 252. The other updated page was the I-94/I-694 duplex page, with 9 westbound photos from the 2003-2005 widening project.

Way too long of a delay...

Feels weird being on here for the first time since Gustav. A lot's happened in the past six months...I transferred from Mississippi to the D.C. area...I'm trying to get a feel for the DC area and my new duty station (the Naval Ice Center), and I've seen Meaghan more times in the past 6 months than I did the whole time down in Mississippi.

But I think I'll start posting here on the blog more often. I'll also start using the blog to announce website updates, so stay tuned.

Tuesday morning

We got lucky here in Picayune. Drove around town yesterday afternoon and this morning, and all I saw were a couple trees, tree branches, power lines, and one I-59 highway sign blown down. Several leaves and small branches all over, but the roads are still passable.

While it doesn't make for exciting photo/video potential, I'm glad we got off with minimal damage.

Those photos I did take are posted on the website, while videos are posted on YouTube.