road construction

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Wilson Boulevard Paving — Paving on Wilson Boulevard between Courthouse and Clarendon tied up traffic for the better part of yesterday afternoon. At one point, the lone open lane was blocked thanks to a construction foreman arguing a parking ticket with a parking enforcement officer.

TangySweet’s Clarendon Salad Shop Gets Name — “Rabbit” is the new name of the salad component of the future TangySweet store in Clarendon. As we first reported in May, store owner Aaron Gordon wants Rabbit to “improve on the salad offerings of competitors like SweetGreen, Mixt Greens and Chop’t.” Rabbit’s opening date depends on the construction of the Clarendon Center project, in which it will be housed. Look for a March or an April opening, says the Washington City Paper.

Beer Garden Suggested for Rosslyn Gateway Park — The addition of an eatery or a beer garden is among the ideas proposed for sprucing up Rosslyn’s Gateway Park. More from TBD.

Redskins Visit Claremont Elementary — Redskins Clinton Portis and Brian Orakpo visited Claremont Elementary School yesterday as part of the NFL’s Play 60 initiative. “It’s nice to give back on my day off,” said Orakpo. More from NBC Washington and the Washington Post.

Lynn Street to Get Its Stripes… Starting Tuesday

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 6:30 p.m.) For the past couple of weeks, drivers heading north on Lynn Street from Route 50 have had to guess what constitutes a lane on the large expanse of newly-paved but unmarked asphalt.

But Rosslyn’s vehicular Wild West is about to be tamed. Lane markings are set to be installed starting on Tuesday night, according to Wayne Wentz, the county’s transportation engineering chief. The work is expected to wrap up “by the end of the week.”

Why wasn’t it done earlier? Wentz told TBD the road was repaved before a lane striping plan was in place due to “a scheduling challenge.”

In an earlier version of this article, another county official erroneously said the work was to begin Saturday.

Route 50 Lane Closure Will Likely Remain Through End of Year

By ARLnow.com

Hopefully you’ve gotten used to the lane closure on westbound Route 50 near Courthouse, because it’s probably sticking around for the holidays.

The lane closure, put into place to facilitate a utility relocation project, was originally supposed to be lifted in July. Now, it will likely be in place through the end of the year.

Washington Gas will wrap up their portion of the utility work by the end of October or beginning of November, according to VDOT utility relocation manager Matthew McLaughlin. Then it’s expected that Dominion will start a two-month installation of an underground electrical conduit. The existing lane closure will stay in place during that time.

The planned two-month duration of the Dominion work “can increase very quickly” in the event of inclement weather, we’re told.

The lane closure has made a tricky merge from Courthouse Road onto westbound Route 50 even trickier. Somewhat ironically, the ultimate goal of the utility relocation work is to prepare for the construction of a safer Route 50/Courthouse Road interchange.

The multi-month delays in the project were caused by additional utility relocations that had to be made due to changes in the interchange construction plan, McLaughlin said.

Photo courtesy Todd DuBois