Commuting - Update on W&OD Piney Branch Bridge Closing in Vienna and Potential Detours

Saw this on the uscf district 20 email list archive, posted earlier this morning:


So I just spoke w/ the Park, and the news isn't good.

There is a lot of erosion below the bridge and it is not safe to use, they
will have to do a lot of work and have a lot of people take a look at it.
He estimated the bridge would be reopened in a couple months. Now they are
trying to put in a temporary bridge on the horse path. But they have to
wait for the water to subside, and then they will be able to get it
constructed. Est. time for the temp bridge: 2 weeks. He is in meetings
today discussing it.

So as for getting around that section of trail. The options as most of you
know are not great.

(From Vienna)

If you take Michael's redirect, you can avoid a little bit more of Beulah by
taking
Clarks crossing
Immd L on Battan Hollow
L on Abbey Oak
R on Meadowlark
L on Beulah

OR

Clarks
L on Brookside
R on Meadowlark
L on Beulah.

Then Follow Michael's directions. Like he said, this route is hilly (the
fixed gear hated it) and they roads are narrow.

Another option, but still w/ traffic

Just after the auto body shops, there is a trail access on the Left, take
that.
R on Center st
L on Abbotsford Dr
R on Lawyers (Narrow, hilly, traffic)
R on Hunters Mill Dr
L on the Trail

I have ridden these sections of road before, and if you are not comfortable
riding w/ traffic, I can't recommend it.

Good Luck, Be safe. I will post again w/ anymore details regarding the temp
bridge.

Justin "Determined not to drive"

There was an earlier discussion about crossing into the subdivision north of the closure; apparently there is no path or portage from the W&OD west of the closure into the subdivision that doesn't require tresspassing through someone's back yard.

Finally, this suggestion just showed up on the fairfaxcycling email list:



I talked to Chris Pauley today, the W&OD Trail
manager. He was with a crew reviewing the damage to
the bridge. He said that he hopes to have a temporary
bridge on the gravel side-trail across Piney Branch,
hopefully by this weekend or the first of next week.
It may be in place by the 4th, but with the holiday,
it may be difficult to get a crew to complete the
work. The work on the permanent bridge will likely
take several months.

I did not see a way to get across the water without a
bridge, at least for now when the water is so high. I
returned to Hunter Mill Road and headed south. I did
not take a left on Lawyers; it's very narrow and there
are very steep sections that I wanted to avoid. I
didn't like Hunter Mill Road south of Lawyers either.
It's also very narrow. I suggest this route:

At Hunter Mill Road and the W&OD Trail, take Hunter
Station Rd. which enters HM road at this point. This
is a very steep but little traveled road that leads to
Lawyers Rd. It's a pretty ride familiar to Reston
Triathletes and Reston Bike Club members who ride it
regularly.

I'll suggest an alternative to Hunter Station: Where the trail crosses Sunrise Valley Drive, turn right and go up the hill to the 1st light, turn left onto South Lakes. Turn left at the first light onto Twin Branch. Take Twin Branch to the end; left onto Lawyers. This brings you out just above Hunter Station; while this route is longer and there's a climb up Sunrise Valley Dr, it is not as steep as the ~1/2 mile up Hunter Station.

Another idea - use Glade Rd from Fairfax County Parkway and Sunrise to Twin Branch as alternative for riders coming down the W&OD from points west of the Parkway. There are likely other options - time to get creative with google maps!

Continuing with the above detour...

Turn left on Lawyers. This section of
Lawyers has a wide shoulder. Watch for glass in the
shoulder. At Hunter Mill Road turn right. South of
Lawyers Rd., Hunter Mill Rd. has a 3-4 foot shoulder
and isn't a bad bike route. Follow Hunter Mill to Vale
Rd. Turn left on Vale and take it to West St. Take
West to Lawyers. When you cross Lawyers, West turns
into Ayr Hill Ave. Take it to Mill St. Go right on
Mill to Church St. then left on Church back to the
W&OD Trail.

This is an opportunity for "roadies" to discover some
cycling roads. Instead of crashing through the
temporary fence that the Park Authority put to block
the bridge, as happened just before I talked to Chris,
let's respect their attempts to fix the problem and
get out on the road where we belong anyway. If the
road conditions are bad, let's try to make them
better. The trail is getting so crowded that the fast
road bike riders should probably be on the roads
anyway. There's some real incentive to ride fast...


Current information on the closure should be available from WABA at http://www.waba.org/floodtracker.htm and from the Parks Authority at http://www.nvrpa.org/

I'm just thankful my W&OD commute doesn't cross any major water hazards... just some mud on the trail in Herndon this morning which was cleared away by this afternoon.

Thanks very much for sharing!

Thanks for the update. Today I took the Hunters Mill to Lawyers detour, which was an experience. It wasn't too bad in the morning, but it was pretty nasty for the evening commute. I'm going to look at some of your alternate routes on the maps tonite and try one tomorrow.

If anyone is interested, I swung by the bridge on my way home to see how things were going and snapped a picture. I don't blame them for closing the bridge. Most of the stone that is actually under the steel beams supporting the bridge slab has been washed away. Repairing it will be a major undertaking. I spoke with an NVRPA person who was directing people away from the bridge, and he was saying that they hope to have a temporary bridge in down on the gravel trail by Friday or Monday (which confirms what you are saying).

http://img272.imageshack.us/img272/1968/bridge6fm.jpg

thanks for the picture-- now I see why they closed it... I did the Lawyers Rd option today and it wasn't too bad-- at 6:30 am there wasn't too much traffic, and in the evening, there were two riders behind me, so the traffic backed up behind them (I was about 100 yards ahead), so I had pretty clear sailing. I did opt for the road bike over the fixie-- because I wanted to maintain speed over the hills (especially downhill). Great news that they will put a temporary bridge in quickly--but all it will take is one good rain to wipe it out as well--

train safe-

Just an FYI, the NVRPA has the temporary bridge completed (I came over it on my way home today). They are still putting the finishing touches on it, so you will probably need to walk your bike carefully through, but it is open.

Big thanks to the NVRPA and the folks who put it up. When I snapped the picture on Wednesday afternoon, there was nothing there. By today, it was finished. They did a nice job with the bridge, cut new paths down to the gravel path and spread fine gravel to make a nice little detour, and they did it in two days. Thats pretty impressive.

Was out there on Sunday. The temp bridge works well, although since follows the horse trail and is at creek level, I worry about it being washed out in another flash flood.

Thanks to NVRPA. I'm impressed at how quickly the new bridge was put in place. Also impressed that the old one is still standing after all that damage.