Columbia Pike is down to one lane in each direction near S. Glebe Road due to a medical emergency.
Initial reports suggest an 82-year-old woman passed out in her car, possibly while waiting for a traffic light. Passersby tried to assist her, but by the time medics arrived she was not breathing and CPR was being performed.
Emergency vehicles are reported to be blocking one lane in each direction on Columbia Pike.
Crystal City’s main drag will be getting a major facelift. A contract has been awarded to convert Crystal Drive from a one way street into a two way street.
During its meeting on Saturday, the County Board voted unanimously to award the $1.9 million contract to Ardent Company, LLC. In addition to the street conversion, the three phase project will improve intersections along Crystal Drive with new traffic signals and ADA compliant ramps and crosswalks. A southbound bicycle lane will also be added.
The new design is expected to make the street safer and easier to navigate, as well as preparing the area for future development and a streetcar.
Construction for phase one is supposed to begin in June and is scheduled to finish by the end of this year. That covers the portion from 12th Street South to 15th Street South. Two other construction phases will follow — one from 23rd Street South to 26th Street South, and another from 26th Street South to 27th Street South.
The county will post notices about periodic lane closures before they happen. The goal is to only close down one lane at a time to minimize the impact to drivers.
Funding for the project was previously approved and appropriated in the Transportation Capital Fund.
Update at 4:45 p.m. — All lanes have reopened, according to WTOP.
The inbound (northbound) HOV lanes of I-395 are blocked over the Potomac River due to an accident.
The accident reportedly involves at least one overturned vehicle and two injuries. Arlington firefighters and medics are on the scene, though the accident is closer to the D.C. side of the river.
HOV traffic is at a standstill approaching the 14th Street Bridge. Drivers should use the mainline of I-395 as an alternative, avoiding the HOV lanes.
An accident on N. Taylor Street in Cherrydale has left power lines strewn across a quiet residential block. Police, firefighters and Dominion Power are all on the scene.
An officer at the scene said it appears a tall moving truck had become caught on low hanging wires over the street, but didn’t realize it and kept driving. The wires came down, along with a power pole which held a transformer.
There are currently wires in the street, across sidewalks and in people’s yards. The lines are no longer live, and crews are working to move them. Nobody was hurt in the incident
Seventy-six customers were without power for about an hour and a half. Right now, only 10 are still without power. Dominion Power spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson said those without electricity are the ones closest to the downed transformer, and power should be restored somewhere between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Crews are bringing in a new power pole and transformer to be installed, hopefully also by 6:00 p.m.
Taylor Street remains closed between 15th and 16th Streets. Arlington County police will stay on the scene to direct traffic until the road re-opens.
Construction crews are on site as a large scale construction project on Washington Boulevard and Columbia Pike begins. The Washington Boulevard bridge will be replaced, and the interchange with Columbia Pike will be revamped.
The project has been about two decades in the making, and VDOT spokeswoman Joan Morris says it finally got underway this week. Right now, it’s still in the very preliminary stages while workers set up a field office and work out logistics.
The revamp is supposed to have eight stages, and is slated to run through August 2015. Once the first stage gains steam, a detour will be constructed for use on certain weekends. VDOT says traffic may need to be re-routed during off-peak hours, but efforts will be made to keep lanes clear during the morning and evening rush hours on weekdays.
The project is budgeted to cost $51.5 million, with federal and state funds paying for most of it.
A street that’s been closed in Clarendon for hours will remain that way through the evening rush.
Drivers are advised to find alternate routes instead of using N. Fillmore Street, which is shut down between Wilson Blvd and Clarendon Blvd.
Dominion is installing a new 150,000 volt underground transformer at the site. It powers numerous businesses on the block.
Several of the businesses, including Palm Beach Tan and Cheesecake Factory, have posted signs on their windows apologizing to customers for having to temporarily close down.
There’s no definite time for the work to be finished, but the block is not expected to reopen any earlier than about 7:00 p.m.
If you ride around Arlington in taxi cabs, the county wants to hear from you.
An online taxi survey has been set up to gather information about experiences with the cabs throughout Arlington. Residents, visitors and businesses are all encouraged to fill out the survey.
According to Richard Viola, the supervisor for the transportation planning section with Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services, the county is in the midst of re-evaluating how many taxi certificates to issue. It’s a process that takes place every other year, and cab drivers must have a certificate to operate in the county.
Viola says the survey will help to determine how well the current system is working, and whether the public is interested in expanding the number of taxis available throughout the county. It will also help to point out areas in need of more cabs, or certain times when more would be beneficial.
“We want to make sure the right number of cabs are on the street,” Viola said. “Putting too many on the street could be detrimental. You’ll see them waiting, circling and creating more traffic. It also hurts the cab drivers because they don’t have enough business and can’t make a living.”
There are currently 765 taxis throughout Arlington. So far, there has never been a decrease in the number of certificates issued; most years the number holds fairly steady.
The survey will be available through the middle of June. Soon after that, a summary with the results will be released.
Police are blocking the ramp from northbound Glebe Road to southbound I-395 — and from southbound I-395 to Shirlington — due to an accident.
One person suffered a back injury as a result of the two-vehicle wreck, according to police radio traffic.
Cars that were stranded on the ramp as a result of the accident are being turned around by police. No word yet on how long the closure may last.
A cement truck backed into a utility pole at the intersection of 16th Street N. and N. Buchanan Street this morning, knocking down power lines and forcing the extended closure of 16th Street.
The incident happened around 9:15 a.m., in the Waycroft-Woodlawn neighborhood. We’re told the cement truck was attempting to back up when it hit the pole, snapping it in two.
16th Street N. is expected to be closed for much of the day as crews from Dominion work to replace the broken poles and downed lines. The closure is several blocks from Virginia Hospital Center.
About 300 homes are expected to be without power until at least late afternoon, while repairs are underway.
(Updated at 10:00 a.m.) Glebe Road was shut down in the area of 5th Street S. this morning due to a head-on collision between a car and a pickup truck
The accident happened just before 9:00 a.m., in front of Arlington Fire Station No. 1. Firefighters had to remove the top of the pickup truck to extricate the female driver, who was reported to be seriously injured. She was brought via ambulance to a local hospital. The driver of the car was reported to be alert and walking around after the accident.
Glebe Road was reopened to traffic around 10:00 a.m.
(Updated at 12:15 a.m.) An SUV crashed and rolled over several times while trying to navigate around Memorial Circle during a car chase this afternoon.
The car chase started in Tysons Corner, when Fairfax County began pursuing a vehicle after a reported grand larceny, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. The chase took pursuing officers onto the George Washington Parkway, into the District and into Arlington National Cemetery, before ending in the wreck on Memorial Circle, according to television news reports.
A large contingent of Arlington fire trucks and medic units were dispatched to the scene of the crash, to treat six people injured in the SUV. A photo posted to Twitter depicts the SUV with severe front-end damage on a grassy area just off the circle.
Among the law enforcement agencies that played a role in the chase were Fairfax County Police, U.S. Park Police and Virginia State Police. Arlington County Police were not involved in the chase and only played a traffic control role following the accident.
Around 4:30 p.m., Metro reported that as a result of the accident, 7Y buses toward Federal Triangle were experiencing delays of 20-25 minutes due traffic on the Memorial Bridge.
Photo courtesy @CAPT258
