Arlington County officially kicked off construction last week on Long Bridge Park, its isolated brownfield on the edge of Pentagon City and Crystal City that it hopes will soon become a major attraction. The 46-acre Park, located just off the Potomac River, was contaminated with "differing levels of lead and PCBs" and had long served as an industrial site, including a brick factory and staging area for construction of the Pentagon.In its place, the County is building
"a distinctive showplace of environmentally sound development, featuring attractive public green spaces, high-quality outdoor recreation facilities and environmentally responsible structures." Planning for the project began back in 2001, completion is expected next summer.The Park borders I-395, Roaches Run Wildfowl Sanctuary and Reagan National Airport. Donohoe Construction won the bid for construction work last December. The first phase of improvements will include lighted athletic fields, more than a mile of walking trails, a public river overlook, bike paths, restrooms, parking and new "rain garden" among other amenities. A new walkway "will be suitable for strolling, bicycling, train spotting, plane watching and small festivals," says a county statement.
On-street parking will be provided on Jefferson Davis highway for the heavy traffic the county anticipates the park will generate. While the county will pick up most of the initial $28m construction costs, Marymount University is providing a $2m construction grant. With the additional planned phases, the entire project is expected to cost roughly $90 million.
Arlington Virginia real estate development news
8 comments:
This will help Arlington rival the Mall. In fact, with its riverside bike trail, this will make the VA side better.
Better than the Mall is a stretch. Was beginning to wonder when they were gonna start - it will be really nice when complete
This will be a great asset for the Greater Crystal City area! Note that this area technically is in Crystal City, not Pentagon City as the name of the post alludes...
The big advantage of this park, and the Virginia side, is that the whole side of the Potomac is connected by bike trails. Granted, there's a highway running along side it, but DC has made little effort to build a contiguous bike trail, and getting from Georgetown to downtown requires a bad crossing at the Watergate and another series at the Lincoln. I don't know where the bicyclists association is, but there has been scant improvement on biking around DC; its easier just to go to Maryland or VA. Wish someone would address that.
Scott, I guess you don't live in DC. You should do your research before you publicly say there has been scant improvement in biking in DC. The DC government is going bonkers building bike lanes and trails all over the place IN DC! This includes contiguous bike trails on BOTH sides of the river--but too bad for you that it is the Anacostia river. :)
Lack of biking facilities around the monumental areas you can blame the NPS and Fed, not DC!
http://ddot.washingtondc.gov/ddot/frames.asp?doc=/ddot/lib/ddot/information/bicycle/pdf/master_plan/Final_Map.pdf&open=|32399|
Sorry, the link got cut off. Trail Map Plan
Horace, I live in DC. And I bike in DC, but I find it MUCH more pleasant to cross the bridge and bike in Virginia, where there is a long, continuous trail that doesn't have to cross intersections and contend with cars, in which bikes always lose. Okay, the VA trail could be widened by a foot, but its attractive, functional, and easy.
If you're referring to the useless bike lines DDOT has added in places like 15th, I'm sorry they wasted my money on that. The endless row of yellow markers are an eyesore, and I still have to compete with speeding traffic, driveways, and turning drivers that never look behind to check for bikes. I have noticed few other bikers on those, for good reason.
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