The second round of closures related to Metro’s yearlong SafeTrack maintenance plan is slated to take effect today, with big impacts to Blue Line service in Arlington.
Maintenance crews will work on portions of the Orange, Silver and Blue lines until July 3, according to a service advisory.
On the Orange Line, trains will not run between Eastern Market and Minnesota Ave/Benning Road. Orange and Silver line trains will run every 10 minutes between Vienna/Wiehle-Reston and Eastern Market.
On the Blue Line, trains will not run between between Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn. Trains will, however, run between Franconia-Springfield and Arlington Cemetery each weekday until 10 p.m. Yellow Line trains will run on a Rush+ schedule all day on weekdays to compensate for the loss of Blue Line service.
Metro will provide shuttle service for riders traveling to and from affected stations. Arlington County has also expanded ART 43 service, which runs between Rosslyn and Crystal City, on middays, evenings and weekends until Aug. 20.
Trains may be extremely crowded, especially during rush hour, Metro officials said. Regular riders are encouraged to use commuting alternatives such as carpooling or telecommuting.
Fathers in the Arlington County jail will be granted an opportunity to spend time with their children during the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office annual Incarcerated Fathers Program on Monday (June 20).
“This event allows male inmates a once-a-year opportunity to actually come in contact with their children,” said Sheriff Beth Arthur, in a press release. “It is designed to strengthen and encourage positive relationships between fathers and their children, and to help lessen the impact and effects of separation.”
The event has been held around Father’s Day for the last four years. It is the only time during the year that male inmates are permitted physical contact with their children.
This year’s program will have an aquarium theme. The children will make themed crafts while enjoying dinner with their fathers, allowing them quality time to bond with their children.
The blues will return to Arlington as the 21st annual Columbia Pike Blues Festival will be held on Saturday from 1-8:30 p.m.
The festival will feature a mix of local and nationally recognized blues talent throughout the day. Admission is free.
Here is the list of acts scheduled to perform:
Little Bit A Blues @ 1:00 p.m.
Bobby Thompson Project ft. Ron Holloway @ 2:00 p.m.
Bosley @ 3:30 p.m
Davina and the Vagabonds @ 5:00 p.m.
Jesse Dee @ 6:30 p.m.
Along with the music, the festival will also have have local food vendors. Some of the cuisines on offer include Moroccan, Nigerian, Mexican, Caribbean.
Carol’s Concessions — Caribbean and American festival fare
Sloppy Mama’s BBQ — Barbecue and all the sides
Arts and crafts vendors and other local businesses will also represented.
The festival will take place at the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Walter Reed Drive. There will also be street closures for the event.
Here is a the list of street closures according to Arlington County:
Walter Reed Drive will be closed from Columbia Pike to 9th Street S. Vehicles can use 7th Street to Highland Street as a detour.
9th Road will be closed from S. Garfield Street to Walter Reed Drive.
9th Street will be closed from S. Highland Street to Walter Reed Drive.
Attendees are encouraged to take public transportation with many ART and Metrobus lines serving the area. The weather forecast for the festival is sunny with a high of 82 degrees.
After the oil spill earlier this year that released 13,500 gallons of mineral oil into the Potomac River, Dominion Virginia Power has announced that it will conduct a dye tracer test this morning.
The test is being conducted to determine how oil traveled from Dominion’s Crystal City substation to the Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary.
The dye will be a bright peach color and it is non-toxic; it’s expected to last no longer than a week and, according to Dominion, currents and sunlight will likely cause the dye to dissipate within a day.
At the end of the day Monday, 96 percent of the planned work had been completed, with three days remaining in the schedule, Wiedefeld said. Continuous single-tracking on the Orange and Silver lines is still slated to wrap up tomorrow (Thursday), as originally planned.
“Given the importance of quickly getting into this intensive track rehab program, I am pleased with the work getting done in Surge #1, and want to thank the entire region for their support over the last twelve days,” said Wiedefeld. “While the immediate benefit for any surge is safety, as we conclude the surges, customers should see an improvement in track reliability and overall ride quality along this area of the Orange and Silver lines.”
The work done included rail tie replacement, insulator renewal, fastener renewal and leak repairs, as detailed in a report released by Metro.
Although early indications suggested that SafeTrack was causing delays for most commuters, the din of complaints on social media largely faded as the work continued. Riders who spoke to ARLnow.com outside the Ballston Metro station last Thursday (see video, below) said their commutes weren’t overly affected by the changes — fears of major overcrowding and delays did not materialize, at least in their experience.
Stage two of SafeTrack will begin on Saturday with shuttle buses replacing trains between Eastern Market and Minnesota Ave/Benning Road on the Orange, Blue and Silver lines. Blue Line trains will only run between Franconia-Springfield and Arlington Cemetery in both directions. The work is scheduled to wrap up by July 3.
The United States Coast Guard will conduct a commemorative flyover of the D.C. area around noon on Friday, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of USCG aviation.
The flyover will involve nine aircraft representing the current Coast Guard fleet — painted in historic color schemes to honor Coast Guard aviation’s history of national defense and saving lives.
The aircraft will ultimately be flying to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles International Airport, for the museum’s Innovations in Flight display on Saturday.
Arlington is right in the flight path of the flyover, thus making places like Gravelly Point Park, the Pentagon and the Air Force Memorial ideal viewing points for the event.
The aircraft participating in the flyover include “MH-65 Dolphin helicopters, MH-60T Jayhawk Helicopters, HC-144 Casa and C-27J Spartan Medium Range Surveillance aircraft, HC-130J Hercules Long Range Surveillance Aircraft, and the C-37 Gulfstream G-5 Long Range Command and Control Aircraft,” according to the Coast Guard.
The Sierra Club wants Arlington County to run completely on clean and renewable energy by 2035.
The organization announced today that it is launching its Ready for 100 energy awareness campaign in Arlington and Alexandria. Fifteen U.S. cities including San Diego have already committed to 100 percent clean energy and Arlington has already vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.
“We strongly support a goal of 100% clean energy,” said Elenor Hodges, Executive Director of Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, in a press release. “Arlington County has already set a high bar for Virginia, but we can do even better. I think this is an effort many residents will get behind.”
The price of clean energy has dropped significantly over the past few years, with solar energy costs alone dropping by 80 percent, according to the Sierra Club. The solar industry has expanded as well, with over 200,000 people working with solar energy, nearly twice as many as the coal mining industry.
“By transitioning to 100 percent clean energy, our city could prevent thousands of asthma attacks and dozens of premature deaths every year,” said Dr. Samantha Ahdoot, an Alexandria-based pediatrician. “This would be a big step in the right direction toward allowing our kids to breathe easier.”
According to a study by scientists from Stanford, transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy would save the average American family $260 per year in energy costs and an additional $1,500 in health care costs.
The Sierra Club is rallying local residents — including students — to urge local officials “to boost the local economy and save families money by leading the way to 100 percent clean energy.” From the press release:
The electricity sector has embarked on an unstoppable shift from its high-pollution, dirty-fueled past to a safer, cleaner-powered future. The stay issued by the Supreme Court on the Clean Power Plan cannot reverse that trend. Nor can it dampen the overwhelming public support for action on climate change and clean energy.
“Our current dependence on fossil fuels means that my generation will be dealing with the impact of climate change for our entire lives,” said Helene Turvene a junior at Washington-Lee High School. “A commitment now to 100% renewable energy not only will help to begin reversing those impacts, but it will position our community for a more sustainable future. Students want to know that local leaders are acting with us, and future generations, in mind.”
With the Arlington County Board primary fast approaching, Democratic candidates Libby Garvey and Erik Gutshall took to the airwaves in their final debate before voters head to the polls on Tuesday.
The candidates went on Kojo Nnamdi’s WAMU-FM radio show, The Politics Hour, Friday afternoon.
Some of the topics covered included the capacity crunch in county schools, affordable housing and the ongoing battle with aircraft noise.
The full debate can be viewed above. Here are some highlights:
Garvey on what she wants voters to know about her time serving Arlington
“I think over the past 20 years I’ve done a pretty good job serving Arlington. Fifteen years on the School Board help make our schools among the best in the country. And in my 4 years on the County Board I’ve done quite a bit to make our government more responsive and more transparent. One of the things we just started to do was video streaming our work sessions. Up until then if you wanted to watch the board actually getting work done at work sessions, you had to sit in the room and that was hard for a lot of people to do.”
Gutshall on why he’s running
“I’m running because I think I’m better qualified to make sure that we are meeting the challenges that we face today with solutions for tomorrow.
We’ve got to make long-term strategic investments. We have a capacity crisis in our school that’s in our sixth year and we still don’t have a plan for getting out in front of rising student enrollment. We have to make sure that we’re making investments in our transportation infrastructure and we’re dragging our feet in moving forward with the capital improvement plan for doing that.
We’ve got a major issue in Arlington County of housing affordability. It’s the issue that’s going to define our time, our day. We are not moving forward in the way that we need to and the way that I believe Arlingtonians want to in order to make sure that the middle class does not get squeezed out of Arlington.”
Garvey on her long-term plan for handling the school issue
“My long-term plan is to be supporting the School Board. I’ve been on the County Board for four years. That’s really the School Board’s job to come forward to us with plans.
I will say that little over a year ago, the School Board came to the County Board asking to build a school on the Thomas Jefferson site. Four of my colleagues unfortunately thought that it needed more of a community process. I was the one vote to go ahead and move forward with that. A year later, the whole board moved to move forward and we lost a whole year in the process. I have always been supportive of moving our schools forward and getting the work done.”
Gutshall on balancing the seat numbers with the growing student population
“I would hope it wouldn’t wait until I took office on January 1 to move forward with the implementation of the Community Facilities Study. Moving forward, what we need to do is we need to make sure that we’re having a conversation with the School Board and we’re going to miss the opportunity on this CIP now. We need to move forward on laying out a comprehensive plan where all seats, elementary, high school, middle school, all neighborhoods, north, south, east and west are accountable.”
Gutshall on housing and development
“What we have here is a problem that’s created by our success. Everybody wants to be here, that’s a good thing. Rising property values, that’s a good thing. But we need to make sure that we are keeping an eye on what we can do for the problem and risk of squeezing out the middle class. What I’ve been talking about is what’s called the missing middle: the idea where you have medium density, not the high rise density of our Metro corridors and not the low density in our single family neighborhoods, but in between that, the missing middle for example along Lee Highway and Glebe Road and other major arterials served by transit where right now you might see a lot of old strip malls, used car lots, basically underutilized land.
We can look at our zoning ordinances. We can open up opportunities for developers to come in and create different housing choices for young families just starting out, for seniors who want to age in the community.”
Those heading to the bicycle races are encouraged to use Metro, despite the ongoing SafeTrack maintenance work on the Orange and Silver lines. On Saturday, Clarendon on the Orange and Silver lines will be closest station. On Sunday, the closest station will be Crystal City on the Blue and Yellow lines.
For those who decide to drive, there will be restrictions on street parking with temporary “no parking” signs being placed in the race areas.
On Saturday, the following roads will be closed from 4:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Wilson Blvd. from N. Fillmore Street to Washington Blvd.
Clarendon Blvd. from Washington Blvd. to N. Fillmore Street
Washington Blvd. from Wilson Blvd. to N. Highland Street
N. Highland Street from Wilson Blvd. to Washington Blvd.
N. Garfield Street / N. Fillmore Street from Wilson Blvd. to Washington Blvd.
On Sunday, the following roads will be closed from 4:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Crystal Drive from 15th Street S. through S. 23rd Street
Wilson Blvd. from N. Kent Street to the ramp to Route 110
S. Clark Street from 20th Street S. to 23rd Street S.
20th Street S. from Crystal Drive to S. Clark Street
18th Street S. from Crystal Drive to Bell Street
23rd Street S. from Crystal Drive to S. Clark Street
Crystal Drive (west side) from 23rd St S. to the Century Center parking garage
The Cycling Classic will hold races for all levels of cyclists ranging from amateurs to elite.
The first day will take place in Clarendon and the second will take place in Crystal City. On Sunday, before the normal slate of races and rides, the event will honor the memory of a fellow cyclist and race competitor.
A ceremony will be held Sunday morning to honor former Navy SEAL and two-time Challenge Ride gold medalist Tim Holden, who was killed last summer after being hit by a car while riding his bike in Bethesda. A special presentation will be made to Holden’s wife, Pam, as part of the ceremony.
The Village of Shirlington recently released the schedule for its annual “Shirlala Music Festival” series of outdoor concerts.
The festival is an expansion of the former Shirlington Jazz Festival and this year’s selection contains a wide range of genres including swing, pop, rock, and even tropical steel drums.
The concerts take place every Thursday from the beginning of June until August 25, running from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
The schedule is as follows:
June 9 — Justin Trawick & the Common Good (Urban Folk Rock)
On the Blue Line, trains will not run between between Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn. Trains will, however, run between Franconia-Springfield and Arlington Cemetery each weekday until 10 p.m. Yellow Line trains will run on a Rush+ schedule all day on weekdays to compensate for the loss of Blue Line service.
