July 2019 – Road and Trails Conditions

[peterw_diy]

From this Call.Click.Connect request (follow the link for a photo) it sounds like Holmes Run trail has some problems even above the High Water detour: https://request.alexandriava.gov/CCC/?t=183625

Quote:

Holmes run trail north of 395

Damage from the floods:

The dirt at the end of the boardwalk has been washed quite a bit, and is now covered with deep ruts

The river rock transition from the dirt to the concrete is gone and is now a foot deep pit

There is also a tree down on the trail

Remaining portions of the trail have dirt swept over it, and it looks like the ground around the trail lost quite a bit of soil

Also there is a large tree stuck into the bridge at the crossing near the lower end of Dora Kelly, on the Holmes run trail

[DrP]

@DrP 192015 wrote:

Anyone know what MVT between Rosslyn and 14th bridge is like? Wondering for morning commute.

Answering my own question – MVT is just fine. I guess it was a good thing that this all happened near low tide. There is a big streak of flotsam in the river not far off the VA shore, but it isn’t all over the trail like the flooding last year was.
There still seems to be a porta-potty in the river just north of Memorial Bridge (I kind of thought that would have moved south of the bridge, but maybe it is stuck on something).

[Crickey7]

CCT is being cleared this morning, should be A-Okay by midday.

[sjclaeys]

The C&O towpath from Chain Bridge to Georgetown is in good shape with nice puddles if you want.

[Crickey7]

@sjclaeys 192020 wrote:

The C&O towpath from Chain Bridge to Georgetown is in good shape with nice puddles if you want.

I still have to hose my bike off from yesterday’s ride on the towpath.

[Emm]

After seeing reports last night about how bad 4mrt was near Shirlington, I was SHOCKED by the fact the 4mrt turn off from the MVT was completely clear on my ride home from work. No debris, no water, no mud, nothing. Usually after flooding there’s at least a few nasty debris piles under the GW Parkway/Route 1 bridges. It was so clean I actually wonder if someone had gotten there and cleared it out already since I can’t imagine that area didn’t flood.

[baiskeli]

@Emm 192022 wrote:

After seeing reports last night about how bad 4mrt was near Shirlington, I was SHOCKED by the fact the 4mrt turn off from the MVT was completely clear on my ride home from work. No debris, no water, no mud, nothing. Usually after flooding there’s at least a few nasty debris piles under the GW Parkway/Route 1 bridges. It was so clean I actually wonder if someone had gotten there and cleared it out already since I can’t imagine that area didn’t flood.

My theory is that this flood was so powerful and fast that it swept all the debris much further.

[Brandon]

From Vienna to DC today: W&OD was clear, watch out for leftover mud/silt though on all the underpasses between the Custis and Columbia Pike. One spot in my usual line almost caused me to wipe out. There was a tree down in the Vienna area but it was only blocking a small portion of the trail. 4MRT was all clear too, they came in and cleared out the Glebe road underpass which was surprising.

[Steve O]

Probably the most dramatic casualty of yesterday’s flood was the bridge in Glen Carlyn that used to be here:
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The water was so powerful it tilted the earth
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[scoot]

@Steve O 192026 wrote:

Probably the most dramatic casualty of yesterday’s flood was the bridge in Glen Carlyn that used to be here:
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From ARLnow: As of last night, the an Arlington Dept. of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman said the department was aware of “at least six pedestrian bridges adjacent to the Four Mile Run stream and one storage building at Bon Air Park” which have been washed away.

Apparently there are five additional ped bridges gone?

[viennabiker]

An update from 11 am Tuesday:
1. I rode the length of the CCT (Bethesda to Georgetown). Trees have been cleared. Some muddy patches are still there, especially but not exclusively in the stretch between Chain Bridge and the Dalecarlia Tunnel (under MacArthur Blvd). It looked like more cleanup was still underway when I passed around 10:30
2. I rode on Rock Creek from Georgetown up to Broad Branch. The area north of P Street that is usually a big muddy mess after a heavy rain (when the creek overflows) had only a thin layer of mud. There were a few muddy patches but it looked like all the big ones had been cleared.

[Steve O]

@scoot 192027 wrote:

From ARLnow: As of last night, the an Arlington Dept. of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman said the department was aware of “at least six pedestrian bridges adjacent to the Four Mile Run stream and one storage building at Bon Air Park” which have been washed away.

Apparently there are five additional ped bridges gone?

Maybe that storage building is where all the corrugated metal near George Mason came from:
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None of the bridges on the W&OD were damaged south/east of the Custis. That was the only one I saw between Glen Carlyn and Walter Reed Drive that was out. All the fords were still there, although there was some damage/erosion around them in some cases. I’m curious, then, about which others they might be.
There’s only 1 more I can think of south/east of Walter Reed: the one at Oakland St. Upstream from the Custis that aren’t that many, and no one has reported the connectors to Dominion Hills or EFC Metro, or the one in Benjamin Banneker Park as being gone. Are they?

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@scoot 192027 wrote:

Apparently there are five additional ped bridges gone?

Two pedestrian bridges over Lubber Run behind the Lubber Run Amphitheater were washed away. That’s just off of Four Mile Run so probably count in that total.

Lubber Run north of 50 is a mess. Route 50 over Lubber Run is actually a really tall causeway with a teeny-tiny culvert at the base for a lazy Lubber Run to pass through. The culvert is about the size of a Mini Cooper. Lubber Run floodwaters bottlenecked here and built up behind the Route 50 causeway like a giant dam. Judging by the debris in the tree branches, the water was probably 20 feet high up above the normal level of Lubber Run.

Parts of the Lubber Run bridges managed to squeeze through the culvert and got hung up at the confluence of Lubber and Four Mile. Between the confluence and the W&OD, Four Mile Run looks like a giant’s game of pick up sticks.

[dbb]

@baiskeli 192023 wrote:

My theory is that this flood was so powerful and fast that it swept all the debris much further.

Nope. Low tide was at 0814 so the tidal part of FMR had no problem dumping into the Potomac.

[Judd]

Arlington Parks and Rec cleared all the debris from Four Mile Run Trail yesterday. There’s some sand underneath some of the bridges. There is significant damage to the stream banks on 4MR. Lots of erosion and loss of trees and undergrowth. There’s some erosion encroaching on the W&OD.

The fair weather crossings were all silted yesterday and water was running over. Also some trail damage on Four Mile Run Trail west of Columbia Pike.

My pictures are at: https://twitter.com/juddlumberjack/status/1148730377562939392?s=21

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Author]

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