Maryland DPWT held their do-over workshop on the Metropolitan Branch Trail alignment. The workshop dealt only with the alignment from the west side of Georgia Avenue to the corner of King Street and Fenton Street. As previously mentioned here, DPWT held a workshop in March where option 1 below was strongly preferred, but sighting high costs they developed two new options (4 and 5) which were presented at the new workshop. The options briefly are:
Option #1: This option takes the trail south from a new bridge over Georgia Avenue (MD 97) to the area between Selim Road and the railroad to a proposed tunnel under Burlington Avenue (MD 410). Selim Road would be narrowed to provide for the trail, and the intersection of Selim Road and Philadelphia Avenue would be realigned. The trail would continue south along the railroad, turning east and then south on Fenton Street (with an at-grade crossing of King Street) to connect with the existing trail.
Option #2: same as option 1 until Selim road when it turns east to reach Philadelphia Avenue. Selim Road would be realigned to intersect Philadelphia Avenue to the east of the current intersection. The public parking lot at the corner of Selim Road and Philadelphia Avenue would be modified. The trail follows the south side of Philadelphia Avenue, crossing Old Philadelphia Avenue at-grade. The trail then follows the north side of Old Philadelphia Avenue to reach the west side of Fenton Street. The trail has an at-grade crossing of Burlington Avenue (MD 410) at the signalized intersection with Fenton Street and continues south along the west side of Fenton Street with an at-grade crossing of King Street to connect with the existing trail.
Option #3: Same as option 2 but running along the North side of Philadelphia Avenue.
Option #4: Same as option 1, but along Selim Road, the trail makes an at-grade crossing at 903 Selim Road and it is proposed to acquire the properties in order to continue through the existing building and the building at 906 Philadelphia Avenue to reach Old Philadelphia Avenue. The trail follows the north side of Old Philadelphia Avenue to reach the west side of Fenton Street and continues south along the west side of Fenton Street with an at grade crossing of King Street to connect with the existing trail.
Option #5: This option utilizes the existing pedestrian walkway on the Georgia Avenue bridge instead of a new bridge and then the same as option 2.
Choosing any option besides 1 relegates bike commuters (and this trail is being pushed as a transportation project more than a recreation one) to second class status. In addition Option 5 assumes that cyclists will get off their bikes and walk them across the narrow walkway, and I've never seen cyclists do that at any of the other locations (the humpback bridge or crossing the GW parkway for example) where walking ones bike is required. Simply put, transportation officials would never ask people driving their car to suffer these kind of inconveniences and car commuters would never put up with it. Hopefully they'll still chose option 1.
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