Project Scope

In October 2009, Arlington County Department of Environmental Services, Division of Transportation, awarded a contract to a consultant firm to complete a range of services for the Columbia Pike Multimodal Improvements Project that includes the analysis of existing and future transportation conditions, completion of a NEPA environmental document, development of preliminary engineering plans, and facilitation of public involvement.

Project Area

The area for this project is the existing Columbia Pike corridor within Arlington County, from the Fairfax County line on the west end to South Joyce Street on the east end.

Design Features

• Existing and proposed street cross sections along the corridor between land uses (for example, between building faces)
• Street elements include sidewalks, street trees, curb and gutter, on street parking, bicycle accomodations, travel lanes and transit lanes, medians, and left-turn lanes
• Signalized and un-signalized intersections
• Design area to include 300 feet of each side street, measured from the centerline of Columbia Pike
• Areas to be readied for existing and future transit services, including concrete pads, sidewalks, and utilities
• Parallel bicycle routes off of Columbia Pike to the north and south of the corridor (to provide alternate routes around lengths of Columbia Pike constrained by right-of-way)

Project Tasks

The following major tasks are underway and scheduled to be completed by December 2011.

Multimodal Transportation Study – A transportation and infrastructure analysis of the corridor, building upon previous analyses performed by the County, to develop right-of-way and street cross-section alternatives that will then be evaluated on a block-by-block basis.

• Existing and proposed multimodal transportation conditions are being evaluated for the corridor to support the environmental documentation and to establish the preferred build alternative for preliminary engineering
• The study team is evaluating multimodal transportation data for the existing conditions and predicting future travel conditions through the use of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) regional travel demand model data
• The recommendations of the study report will include street cross sections analyzed on a block-by-block basis, initially based on the recommendations of the Street Space Planning Task Force, constrained by the limits of near-term right-of-way acquisition, including redevelopment, and will take into account ongoing redevelopment projects
• Recommendations of these “interim” cross sections will be evaluated through this project’s agency and public involvement process
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Environmental Documentation – Completion of an environmental process in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

• This task includes selecting the correct NEPA course of action and preparing a NEPA document
• The environmental process and documentation will comply with the federal, state, and local requirements and will evaluate potential transportation, socio-economic, and environmental effects
• The process will focus on issues concerning the public, FHWA, the state, and local jurisdictions. Issues identified will be specific to this corridor and to the proposed infrastructure improvements
• The environmental documentation will analyze effects that could occur during the construction period and longer term impacts that may result from proposed improvements and will identify solutions to correct any potential impacts
• The documentation will use 2009 as the base year of analysis and 2015 as the full-build year. A future year of 2030 also will be evaluated
• It is anticipated that the result of this task will be an environmental document [such as an Environmental Assessment (EA)] and agency decision [such as a Finding of No Significant Impacts (FONSI)]

Preliminary Engineering Plans – Development of engineering plans with the goals of identifying physical requirements of the project and developing more defined cost estimates.

• Project plans will be based on current mapping and the recommendations of the multimodal transportation study report
• Design will be accomplished on a block-by-block basis and integrated along the entire corridor
• Engineering plans will be presented at a public hearing in accordance with this project’s agency and public involvement plan
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• The result of this task is anticipated to be 50 percent design plans which can then be used for implementation of all or a portion of the Columbia Pike Multimodal Improvement Project independent of or in concert with future infrastructure improvements, transit improvements, and/or redevelopment

The Project Scope includes

• Analysis of traffic and transportation operations to inform the design and environmental processes
• Coordination with other concurrent design, environmental, and construction projects in the corridor
• Establishment of the required level of environmental document for this multimodal street design/streetscape project in accordance with NEPA requirements
• Accommodations for a future transit service and associated transit facilities
• Definition of impacts on existing right-of-way and potential for relocation of utilities, including undergrounding of existing overhead utilities
• Preliminary design of interim streetscape and related multimodal improvements