18th Street South Complete Street Improvements (Crystal Dr to S. Bell)

Location

18th Street South between South Clark-Bell Street and Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202  View Map

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Status

In Design

This project is in the preliminary design phase. The project team is gathering public input on the concept design in Fall 2024.

About the Project

The purpose of this project is to implement the new alignment of 18th Street South between Route 1 and Crystal Drive and improve multimodal connectivity to and from the Crystal City Metrorail Station, MetroWay stop and the planned future location of the Crystal City VRE Station. The 18th Street South Realignment project is a goal of both the Crystal City Sector Plan and Crystal City Multimodal Transportation Study, and is a key easy-west corridor for the Crystal City Bike Network (CCBN).

Project Basis

Planning guidance for this project comes from the following County Board-adopted plans and policies:

Master Transportation Plan

  • Streets Element: the County's Complete Street Policy (Streets Element Policy #4.2) informs the scope of this project to improve safety for all road users, including people walking, biking, taking transit and driving

Vision Zero Action Plan

  • The 2021 Vision Zero Action Plan calls on County Transportation staff to take a proactive approach to safety, to eliminate severe and fatal crashes from our transportation network by 2030
  • Separating vulnerable road users (people walking and biking) from motor vehicle traffic is a core, effective tool for eliminating severe and fatal crashes before they occur.

Public Spaces Master Plan

  • Priority Action 9.2.1.5 specifies that the County should "[c]reate safe routes to parks and other public spaces by filling gaps in sidewalks and trails that connect public spaces to neighborhoods, schools, transit stations and other County facilities"

 

Crystal City Sector Plan (2010)

  • Recommendation 4.2.4 (Transportation) outlines the focus on complete streets for Crystal City, stating "[t]he County’s approach to achieving complete streets and a robust transit system will be applied to give greater priority to transit users, pedestrians and bicyclists."
    • Action Item 18 calls for projects that "provide additional pedestrian and bicycle connectivity to public transit and the adjacent neighborhoods."

 

Crystal City Bike Network (CCBN)

  • The CCBN final recommendations memo calls for this segment of 18th Street S. to include a buffered bike lane on the southern, east-bound side of the street, and a partially protected, partially buffered bike lane to be included on the northern, west-bound side of the street.

 

Additional coordination will occur between adjacent projects, including:

Public Process

Fall 2024 - Concept Design Public Engagement

Following the CCBN process, transportation staff advanced the concept design into a more detailed form to better reflect the evolving nature of the Crystal City streetscape and transportation needs for this corridor. In Fall 2024, the project team released a new concept design for public comment in coordination with the Department of Parks & Recreation's first open house for the Metro Market Square Park Master Planning Process.

18CS-30pct-Presentation-Plan-For-web.png

  • 30% Concept Design for the project - click to view a larger version of the concept design

From Oct. 23 through Nov. 4, 2024, the project team is gathering public comment on the concept design to incorporate into the final concept, which will be advanced for engineering design and construction. Feedback is being collected in one of two ways:

Submit your feedback online:

The project team launched an online feedback form on October 23, 2024 to gather input on the concept design. The feedback form will guide you through the project basis and highlight the features of the concept design, and ask you a few questions about the design. There is also an interactive map to gather location-specific comments you may have about the design. The feedback form is open through the end of the day on Monday, November 4, 2024.

Share your Feedback

At the Public Meeting:

The project team joined colleagues from Parks and Recreation at their Open House for Metro Market Square on October 23. DES staff answered questions about how this project interacts with the park, and collected input on the concept design.

  • Date: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024
  • Time: 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
  • Location: 251 18th St. S., in the Main Floor Conference Center

 

 

2021-2022 - Crystal City Bike Network Plan

Through the public process for the CCBN, transportation planning staff developed an initial cross-section for this corridor.

CCBN_18th-st-s-crystal-dr.png

Featured improvements in this initial concept included:

  • New sidewalks
  • Street lighting
  • Traffic signal reconfiguration
  • Pick-up/Drop Off facilities
  • Protected bike lanes in both directions
  • Two general travel lanes in each direction

 

 

 

Funding

This project is included for funding in the adopted 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Program.