Long Bridge Park

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

More Funds for Long Bridge Park — The county board is slated to decide whether to spend an additional $4.7 million to move forward with planning for an aquatics facility facility at the future Long Bridge Park, near Crystal City. [Sun Gazette]

Man Arrested in Metro Bomb Plot Sentenced — An Ashburn man who thought he was helping to plan a bombing of the Metro system was sentenced to 23 years in prison yesterday. Farooque Ahmed, 34, was accused of providing undercover federal agents with sketches, photos and videos of the Pentagon City, Courthouse, Arlington Cemetery and Crystal City Metro stations in what he thought was a plot to bomb the stations. [Washington Post]

Arlington Students to Attend Easter Egg Roll — A total of 250 Arlington elementary students will attend the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 25. Fifty students from Arlington Traditional, Glebe, Jamestown, McKinley and Taylor elementary schools will be given tickets to participate in the event. [Arlington Public Schools]

Long Bridge Park Takes Shape Near Crystal City

By ARLnow.com

We’re about one year into the construction of Long Bridge Park and some of the park’s features are starting to take shape.

The long rectangular buildings that will eventually house concession stands and restrooms for the park’s multi-use athletic fields now line Old Jefferson Davis Highway. Large, bulldozed stretches of red dirt will at some point become the lush, green Esplanade and rain garden. A lone steel entrance gate sits in a construction parking lot, awaiting completion of a field around it.

Construction on the first, $50 million phase of the park, located just north of Crystal City, is expected to wrap up in September. Design work on a second phase, which includes an aquatics, health and fitness facility, started last month.

The park will have breathtaking views of the Potomac and the D.C. skyline, but don’t don’t expect to attend any outdoor concerts there. The noise from planes taking off and landing at nearby Reagan National Airport is deafening.

The Long Bridge Park construction project kicked off last March, with the official groundbreaking ceremony held a month later. Since then, heavy equipment has only made the ill-kept road that runs next to the park site even more treacherous.

Old Jefferson Davis Highway, which connects Crystal City with Boundary Channel Drive, is a disaster zone, with potholes the size of Honda Civic tires. Although it’s eventually slated to be repaved, but until then it probably should only be traversed with a truck or SUV.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Read My Lips, No New Taxis — County staff is taking a hard line on taxi cabs, recommending that the board reject a request to add 75 taxis to Arlington’s current licensed fleet of 765 cabs. More from the Sun Gazette.

Long Bridge Park Construction Continues — Despite the budgetary challenges, the county board has reaffirmed its commitment to complete all phases of the Long Bridge Park project near Crystal City. More from TBD.

Arlington Free Clinic Holds Lottery — To become a patient at the Arlington Free Clinic requires a bit of luck. The clinic will serve no more than 1,600 patients, so once a month it holds a “lottery day” to decide who gets to receive clinic services. More from MyFoxDC.

Snowmageddon: The Book — If someone you know is going through blizzard withdrawal, the fine folks over at the Capital Weather Gang have the perfect holiday gift for you. They’ve come up with a 120-page book, filled with photos and nerdy weather stuff from everybody’s favorite freak succession of snow storms. More from CWG.

Construction Kick-Off For $50 Million Park

By ARLnow.com

Arlington County leaders officially kicked off the $50 million Long Bridge Park construction project Saturday afternoon.

The park is being built just north of Crystal City, adjacent to Old Jefferson Davis Highway, on perhaps the largest open, undeveloped parcel of land left in Arlington County.

Speaking before the ceremonial shoveling were Arlington County board chairman Jay Fisette, park Design Advisory Committee chairman Toby Smith, and acting county manager Barbara Donnellan. State delegates Bob Brink, Patrick Hope and Adam Ebbin were in attendance, along with Arlington board members, county staffers, and park planners.

“This has been a long time in coming, and some of us thought it would never come,” joked Smith (see his speech here). The project has faced delays due lead and PCB contamination found on the former industrial site, as well as complications caused by the fact that the site is on a Reagan National Airport flight path.

Just over five years ago, through a bond referendum, Arlington voters approved funding for first phase of the 46-acre park, which includes three lighted turf athletic fields with synthetic turf, a half-mile long raised walkway, a rain garden and a large public event area.

The funding will also pay for the reconstruction of Old Jefferson Davis Highway, a pothole-ridden, flood-prone stretch of back road that’s perhaps the most poorly-maintained road in the county — and the only way to reach the park. The construction will include bike lanes, on-street parking, landscaped medians and street-side tree plantings.

If all goes according to plan, the park will open as early as the summer of 2011.

A second phase of the park, for which the county is seeking private funding, will include a state-of-the-art aquatics and fitness center with a 50 meter pool, a 10 meter diving platform, a therapy pool, exercise rooms, and a child care center.

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