Pickett Road Connector Trail
The Missing Link
At just less than a quarter mile long, the Pickett Road Connector Trail (funded and in design) is an important missing link in the city’s trail network. The new trail will connect more than 40 miles of regional trails, providing safe, off-street access to public transit, shopping and dining areas, employment centers, and parks.
Running north/south between Thaiss Memorial Park and the intersection of Fairfax Boulevard and Pickett Road, the new trail will connect the Wilcoxon and Cross-County Trails to the City of Fairfax Connector Trail, which leads to the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro Station.
The 10-foot-wide, fully-accessible trail will provide a safe alternative to the narrow sidewalk along busy Pickett Road. Walkers and joggers, cyclists, and parents with strollers will enjoy the smooth, level surface interspersed with sections of boardwalk over wetland areas. The trail alignment was selected to minimize environmental impacts and create a memorable experience for trail users.
The estimated total cost for this project is approximately $6 million. The city was awarded funding from Virginia Smart Scale, a federal funding source for improving bicycle and pedestrian trails, highways, and Park and Ride facilities, and expanding transit and rail capacity.
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Comments
I'm all for expanding our protected cycle infrastructure, but this seems like a weird choice. Especially when Pickett is right there, desperately in need of a road diet. It seems like installing a protected bike lane along the length of Pickett Ave. would be cheaper, less disruptive to the already limited green spaces in the city, and much more useful to all the citizens who try to get from Main Street to Lee Highway on what is currently an unpleasant and unsafe stretch of road.
Removed by moderator.
This is terrific. Lasting improvement.
We love that the proposed Pickett trail will connect several trails and that it will enable people, including many who are now living in Scout in the Circle, to experience the calm of nature instead of the traffic of Pickett. The current sidewalk on Pickett is too narrow to be safe for pedestrians and cyclists; we've tried it with our family a couple of times and it's harrowing. Please continue to only remove trees that are absolutely necessary, but we do think there's a huge gain when trails are added so that individuals can experience the joy of the wooded areas.
Need a safe crossing at Rt 50 or it’s just useless. Need a bridge or a tunnel or protected path across 50.
I ride this section of Pickett Road frequently to get to the Fairfax Connector trail on the other side of 50. The sidewalk is much too narrow to accommodate both bicyclists and pedestrians, and the street is too dangerous to ride on. This would be a great new connection. It's important to minimize the impacts on the forest and Accotink Creek. If it's possible to expand the sidewalk to a 10' multi-use trail, that would work for me, too.
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