The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) is looking for some public input on new trail names for the bicycle and pedestrian path along I-66.
No Traily McTrailface, please — FCDOT is seeking a more pleasant, non-gimmicky monicker for the trail, which is currently in planning but set for construction later this year.
“The concern was that I-66 has a negative connotation because everyone hates I-66,” Chris Wells, bicycle and pedestrian program manager for FCDOT, said at an earlier meeting. “But everyone knows where I-66 is and where it’s located. We’re going to be doing sample names and present those at a future meeting.”
The trail — will run from Gallows Road in Vienna to Centreville — has more problems than just the name. Discussion of the I-66 trail at that meeting turned contentious as bicycle advocates prodded Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) staff over issues like separation of the trail from the road and snow removal.
For most of the length of the trail, the bicycle path will be at a separate elevation from the highway or running parallel on side streets.
For a few miles, particularly near Vienna, however, the trail will be running directly alongside the highway. VDOT officials at the meeting noted that it was “not ideal for a pleasant bike-riding experience,” but placing the trail on the other side of the sound barrier would have cut into the back yards of homes along the road.
Upcoming meetings are planned to review the proposed trail and offer an overview of the upcoming construction timeline. The two meetings are scheduled for:
- Vienna: Tuesday, April 9, from 7-8:30 p.m. at Marshall Road Elementary School (730 Marshall Rd SW)
- Centreville: Saturday, April 27, from 1-11:30 a.m. at Centreville Elementary School (14330 Green Trails Blvd)
According to a Department of Transportation post for the meetings:
The meeting will also include an interactive exercise with attendees to explore possible names for the new trail. Attendees will be asked to submit names and weigh in on a sampling of names that have been suggested. FCDOT will than narrow the list of names and host an online survey to vote on the trail names to be presented to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board for consideration and approval.
Image via VDOT
Fairfax County thinks you might need some additional reminders about how quickly you’re driving.
At a Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday, county staff unveiled plans to initiate a pilot program to install new pole-mounted speed display signs.
The signs will track data on cars driving on roads with high levels of speeding, while displaying the speed of passing drivers.
The pilot program will run for one year, with four signs purchased. Two signs will be posted at locations around the county, one facing in each direction, and over the year they will be rotated so each district has the sign at least once.
The signs will be posted at each location for six weeks total, with four weeks of being active with one week dark before and after to collect data on whether the signs have an impact on speeding.
Supervisor Pat Herrity noted that the signs would help the County track data for speed studies. Following inquiries, staff reaffirmed that the signs would not take photos of speeding cars or track license plates.
Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust noted that approaching the installation as a pilot project seemed redundant, since it’s a well-established technology used by other jurisdictions.
“It seems to me like we’re reinventing the wheel in a lot of ways,” said Foust. “These things have been around for a long time, and we’re treating it like we have to study this or analyze that. We need these things. They work.”
Supervisor Dan Storck was similarly dubious of staff’s assertion that there was limited data on the effectiveness of the signs, given that Arlington County has installed similar signs.
While the current plan is to continually rotate the location of the signs, Foust said the County will likely be able to identify problem areas where the signs will likely need to be put up and left.
Photo via Flickr/Loozrboy
Earlier this week we detailed Tysons’ eight districts and the fact that its 3.3 square miles is larger than the area between the Lincoln Memorial, Union Station, and the Wharf in D.C.
Thanks to a tweet from commercial real estate researcher Michael Rodríguez, below, we can now also compare the size of Tysons to Manhattan.
Rotated 90 degrees, the borders of Tysons stretch from the tip of lower Manhattan to 22nd Street, while its top and bottom reach from the Hudson to the East River.
Tysons, with its 30 million square feet of office space, still has a ways to go to catch up to New York City’s 544 million, but already Tysons has more office space than cities like Minneapolis, Baltimore, Tampa and St. Louis, according to the Tysons Partnership. And plenty of additional development is on the way.
https://twitter.com/MRodDC/status/1110998851085840386
https://twitter.com/MRodDC/status/1110985713829511171
Police are investigating a series of wheel thefts in the Tysons area.
Over the last two months, five cars have had their wheels stolen around Tysons, including two vehicles at different locations earlier this week, according to a Fairfax County Police Department recap from Tuesday.
One larceny took place in the 1500 block of Lincoln Way in The Fountains at McLean neighborhood. The other was at the 1500 block of Westbranch Drive, northeast of Tysons Galleria.
Fairfax County Police Sgt. James Curry said thieves typically remove the entire wheel, including the rims and the tires, leaving the vehicle propped up on cinder blocks.
Three other thefts have been reported in the area by FCPD since the beginning of February:
- The 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive
- The 1500 block of Westbranch Drive
- The 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive again
The Highgate at the Mile is a mixed-use development at 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive. One resident of the building told Tysons Reporter that the building’s garage requires a clicker to enter. Building management sent an email to residents warning of “vandalism” in the parking garage after the theft.
Curry said residents of buildings with parking garages should be vigilant about “piggybacking” — people entering the facility on someone else’s pass. Sometimes car thieves also arrive in vehicles that slip in behind a car that legitimately accesses the building, Curry said.
If the garage door to a complex is not functioning, Curry advised alerting the leasing agency or a homeowner’s association
A Redditor claiming to be the victim of the larceny at Fountains at McLean took to the Northern Virginia subreddit to warn others about the incident. According to the Reddit post:
Hey all, just a quick warning. I just had the wheels stolen off of my 2018 Charger on Sunday night from the parking garage in my apartment complex. I filed a police report and the officer with whom I spoke said that this is becoming a much more prevalent problem in the area, with thieves targeting vehicles even in open parking lots.
My car had wheel locks, but unfortunately they really don’t do anything except slow the thieves down by a few seconds, as most of the perpetrators in this area are professionals, and are in and out within minutes. Just a caution for everyone, perhaps consider installing tilt sensors or dash cameras in your vehicles to prevent something like this from happening to you. Definitely the first purchase I’ll make once my car is back up and running.
File photo
A new study of the Maple Avenue corridor shows Vienna’s most dangerous intersections and details extensive gaps in the town’s sidewalk network.
At an April 1 work session, the Vienna Town Council is scheduled to discuss the initial results of study by planning consulting firm Kimley-Horn.
The report also showed three major traffic crash hotspots calculated over three years: where Maple Avenue intersects with Nutley Street, Courthouse Road, and Park Street.
The study shows that while Maple Avenue has extensive sidewalk coverage, streets one block away like Windover Avenue and Glen Avenue on the west end or East Street and Mashie Drive at the east end of town are completely without sidewalks.
Church Street, another major street through the town, only has sidewalks on one side of the street between Park Street and Beulah Road.
In a finding that will surprise few Vienna residents, Maple Avenue is overcrowded. The report said daily traffic on the street topped 30,000 vehicles per day, on the high end of the study’s scale.
The street’s traffic density was worst between Nutley Street and Follin Lane, the main stretch through town.
Maple Avenue also sees high levels of bicycle traffic. It os ranked by the report at “level of traffic stress 4,” the highest category available, meaning that it is exceedingly uncomfortable and stressful for cyclists to use.
Nearly every major road feeding into the street, like Nutley Street and Park Street, as well as the aforementioned Church Street also saw high levels of car traffic and cyclist stress.
Zantech, a technology contractor located just south of the Chain Bridge Road/Leesburg Pike interchange in Tysons, announced plans today to invest $317,853 in an office expansion while adding 120 new jobs.
The company was founded in 2007 and provides technical support primarily for federal government and contracting clients, according to a press release from the Gov. Ralph Northam’s office.
“Strengthening Virginia’s position as a leader in information technology remains one of my highest priorities and partnering with a forward-looking firm like Zantech reinforces the Commonwealth’s reputation as an epicenter for this industry,” Northam said in the press release. “We look forward to Zantech’s continued growth in Fairfax County.”
Zantech’s expansion in Virginia is being supported by the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), a program run through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to provide consultative services and funding to companies creating new jobs.
Photo via Facebook
Students at a private school in Tysons got to examine and touch artifacts from American history in a unique lesson on World War II.
The traveling “Operation Footlocker” exhibit stopped by an AP U.S. history class at the BASIS Independent McLean (BIM) yesterday (Tuesday), according to the school.
The program by the National WWII Museum sends a footlocker full of 15 artifacts from WWII — like letters home, sand collected from Normandy and Iwo Jima, or wartime magazines — to schools in order to facilitate hands-on educational experiences.
The footlocker opened in BIM included a 1944 high school yearbook, wooden toys, and a U.S. Army field manual. The footlockers come with cotton gloves for handling the artifacts and a manual to explain the significance of each object.
“We’re grateful to the National World War II Museum for this fantastic learning opportunity that allows our students to touch, feel and see this moment in history with genuine artifacts,” said Tiffany Conroy, head of school for BIM in the press release.
Fairfax County is planning an LED lightbulb giveaway to brighten local homes and help residents save on their monthly electric bill.
Throughout the spring, libraries across the county will host LED giveaways. All households can get a free LED bulb during the giveaway and are eligible for up to four more, in exchange for turning in incandescent or compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
The Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church) will host a giveaway on Thursday, May 2 from noon-2 p.m.
According to a press release, residents could save up to $75 a year in their electric bill by replacing the five most frequently used incandescent bulbs with LEDs.
“We wanted to help residents use LEDs in their homes, so we will be offering information and one free LED for anyone passing,” said Jessica Lavender, program manager for Energy Action Fairfax, said in a video. “We’ll have a couple tables right when you walk in and displays showing different lighting available.”
In last year’s giveaway, 8,000 LEDs were distributed to roughly 1,6000 people, resulting in nearly 200,000 kWh and $22,000 saved.
The giveaway is part of the LED exchange program, a partnership between Fairfax County, Energy Action Fairfax, and the Fairfax County Public Library. Here is the full list of giveaway location, via Fairfax County.
- Saturday, April 6, 2-4 p.m., Sherwood Regional Library, 2501 Sherwood Hall Lane, Alexandria
- Wednesday, April 10, 10 a.m.-noon, Pohick Regional Library, 6450 Sydenstricker Road, Burke
- Tuesday, April 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Reston Regional Library, 11925 Bowman Towne Drive, Reston
- Thursday, May 2, noon-2 p.m., Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library, 7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church
- Monday, May 13, 4-6 p.m., Centreville Regional Library, 14200 St. Germain Drive, Centreville
- Saturday, May 18, 10 a.m.-noon, George Mason Regional Library, 7001 Little River Turnpike, Annandale
Photo via Facebook
You’re looking good, Falls Church. Have you been working out?
The City of Falls Church has been ranked the third healthiest community in the United States, according to new rankings by U.S. News & World Report.
The study assessed nearly 3,000 counties and other jurisdictions across 81 indicators, including population health, food and nutrition, and public safety. Falls Church was ranked just behind Los Alamos County, New Mexico and Douglas County, Colorado.
Falls Church scored particularly high on education and public safety, though like most of the top-ranked communities it ranked fairly poorly in housing affordability.
Falls Church News-Press noted that the high ranking was actually a slight dip for Falls Church, which last year was ranked at the top of the list.
Falls Church was immediately followed in the rankings by Loudoun County at No. 4. Fairfax County was ranked No. 13, though its actual population health score (95) was higher than Falls Church (92.8).
Photo via Instagram
A new mixed-use residential and commercial development called Hanover Tysons has been approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
The 420-unit project in Tysons’ North Central district was unanimously approved at the Board’s meeting on March 19, the Sun Gazette reported, with Supervisor Linda Smyth (D-Providence) lauding the project for its street grid improvements and its incorporation of a 1.13-acre public park.
As we reported, it had gotten the green light from the Planning Commission five days prior. From that article:
The Hanover Company’s plan is to demolish the vacant seven-story office building that was built in 1983 and replace it with a new residential development.
The new residential building would be between five to seven stories with up to 420 dwelling units and include ground-level retail and nearby park space.
In keeping with Fairfax County’s efforts to promote more affordable housing around Tysons, workforce housing will make up 20 percent of the total units, according to the staff report.
Located just west of Jones Branch Park at 1500 Westbranch Drive, Hanover Tysons is a little under one mile from the Tysons Corner Station.
The county’s Board of Supervisors is set to take up the proposal with a public hearing next Tuesday (March 19).
