Drivers in Westover and East Falls Church can expect traffic delays and detours in the coming weeks as the state and county repave and add bike lanes to Washington Blvd.
The project by the Virginia Department of Transportation, which owns and operates the street, is set to begin in the next couple of weeks with repaving between Lee Highway and N. McKinley Road.
After that repaving is complete, staff from the county’s Department of Environmental Services will install green bicycle lanes, bollards and way-finding signs for bicyclists. At some points, the lanes will have a buffer as wide as two or three feet from traffic. The county and VDOT coordinated on a design plan for the new striping earlier this year.
(1/2) In the next two weeks, VDOT plans to mill and pave Washington Blvd (from Lee Hwy to N McKinley Rd) b/w 9:30a-3p (subject to change).
— Arlington DES (@ArlingtonDES) August 25, 2017
(2/2) Cars can't be parked on the street & traffic detours will be in place. Restriping after paving will include a redesign w/ bike lanes.
— Arlington DES (@ArlingtonDES) August 25, 2017
At one stage, the plan had been for continuous bike lanes along Washington Blvd. But those plans were nixed earlier this year and revised.
Instead, a bicycle lane will be added to shorter stretches. Westbound the lane will run between N. McKinley and N. Sycamore streets. Eastbound the lane will stretch from the hill at N. Sycamore Street near the East Falls Church Metro station to N. Quintana Street. There they will be directed along parallel neighborhood streets before reconnecting with Washington Blvd near Westover.
Staff said they anticipate between 16 and 19 parking spaces on the street will be lost out of around 150 in total. In turn, Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church (6201 Washington Blvd) is expected to increase its parking capacity to 15 spaces.
DES staff said the project has a number of benefits for those in the area:
- Enhance bicycle infrastructure where it does not currently exist
- Help stitch together the expanding Capital Bikeshare system (a new station was installed at the East Falls Church metro station in 2016 and two new stations will be installed in Westover in 2017 and 2018).
- Connect to existing bicycle lanes on Washington Boulevard between Westover and Lacy Woods Park.
- Create a nearly two-mile stretch of bicycle lanes from Sycamore St. to George Mason Dr.
- Narrow unnecessarily wide travel lanes to help calm traffic.
- Install a dedicated left turn lane for westbound Washington Boulevard at N. Ohio Street to help reduce backups.
- Sidewalks will be more comfortable for walking due to buffering provided by the new bicycle lanes.
- Pedestrian safety improvements at key intersections with highly visible markings for crosswalks (pending VDOT approval). Center line “Yield to Pedestrians in Crosswalk” signs may also be installed.
During the work, DES says parking will be prohibited on Washington Blvd and detours will be in place.
Next year, staff will collect additional usage data to track cars, bicycles, pedestrians and parking.
Image (top) via VDOT, (middle) via Google Maps