Road Diet, More NPS Proposals For Southern GW Parkway Analyzed

FORT HUNT, VA — Public feedback is sought on a National Park Service assessment of improvements that include a road diet on the southern part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and improvements to the Mount Vernon Trail.

According to NPS, the plan will guide future improvements for the parkway and trail. The latest assessment of effect looks at how proposed improvements would affect cultural and historic resources. Comments on the proposed plan are due by Sept. 1.

For the parkway, the plan focuses on the 8.5-mile section between Hunting Creek Bridge just south of the City of Alexandria and the Mount Vernon Estate to the south. NPS seeks to put a permanent road diet in place, fix deteriorating infrastructure and add pedestrian and bicyclist crosswalks and other improvements.

A road diet typically involves restriping a roadway to remove a traffic lane. NPS is calling for a road diet "where excessive delays are not anticipated" in the southbound direction between Belle View Boulevard and Mount Vernon Estate and northbound direction between Mount Vernon Estate and Tulane Drive. Where the road diet would be present, there would be one two right shoulders or right turn lanes at southbound intersections and a center turn lane.

"Road diets are low-cost options that can yield substantial benefits, including enhanced safety, improved mobility, and the reclaiming of space for a reallocation of other uses," NPS said in its proposed plan. "Road diets can also create opportunities to safely design crosswalks that avoid 'double threat' [crossing two lanes in one direction] crash scenarios without the need for new infrastructure."

According to NPS, a study in early 2023 found a road diet between Belle Haven Road and Tulane Drive could cause excessive delays due to projected traffic volumes. On the other hand, NPS believes the section between Tulane Drive and Mount Vernon Estate could handle traffic volumes with one through lane in each direction.

Other improvements proposed for the southern section of the parkway are replacing deteriorated concrete road surface, gutters, and mountable curbs, repairing or replacing drainage structures like culverts, ditches, drainpipes, and stormwater inlets, repairing the Little Hunting Creek Bridge, Fort Hunt Overpass Bridge, Alexandria Avenue Overpass Bridge, and Hunting Creek Bridge, installing mumble strips, installing milepost markers, and addressing tree limbs and other vegetation too close to the parkway.

Crosswalks are also proposed at the Stratford Lane, Vernon View Drive, Collingwood Road, Wellington Road, East Boulevard Drive, Tulane Drive, Belle View Boulevard, the Belle View Marina Driveway, and Belle Haven Road intersections. With new crosswalks, NPS could consider measures like pedestrian median refuge areas, intersection lighting where possible, rapid flashing beacons and speed limit feedback signage to improve safety.

As for automated speed cameras, NPS said it does not currently have the authority to issue citations for speed enforcement.

The second part of the proposal calls for improvements to the Mount Vernon Trail between Mount Vernon Estate and Hunting Creek Bridge in Fairfax County and between Four Mile Run Bridge and the Theodore Roosevelt Island parking lot in Arlington County and DC. The proposal excludes the section of the trail under control by the City of Alexandria.

Read the full proposed plan here.