Lots of things happened this week in our review of Around the Corner;
People are talking about how to mitigate the aesthetic issues of the Silver Line‘s largely concrete structure. Hmmmm, if only someone had talked about this a long time ago. The reality is, the Silver Line is not pretty, but then again should it be? Is Route 50 pretty? Is the Dulles Toll Road pretty? Those who construct infrastructure have no idea how to make something pretty. Every decade or so an architect will become involved on a bridge project as that is really a point location where aesthetics can be a driver, but for the most part our infrastructure is for functional purposes. In terms of its construction it should remain as such.
However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be moving forward, after the Bechtel completion, to provide it a sense of place. Lighting, paint, opening it up to each developer to make their own like a 21st century version of adopt a highway are all great ideas. Ultimately, like in Chicago, the elevated rail will be more beautiful when the city of Tysons itself is more beautiful. It is that the concrete sits in a sea of asphalt that provides the very stark utilitarian perception. Once 30 story high rises begin rising along it, the currently perceived massive scale, will be diminished by its towering neighbors. This is already the case in some parts like near the almost complete Tysons Tower project.
The beautification project is a stop gap, for the interim, prior to us getting to the point where the elevated rail is masked by the urbanity that surrounds it which could be decades away. It is a cost effective (in fact if done properly it could remove almost all public funds from the process) method to get the most out of our newest urban asset. (Washington Post)
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Some folks actually like the idea of Tysons being the home to the area’s tallest office tower. It means more jobs, it means more economic diversity, and it means putting our County on the map separate from DC. The Sun Gazette pretty much hits all the big benefits in their editorial. (Sun Gazette)
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In case you have been living under a rock the past week. The Silver Line was resubmitted for review by the Dulles Transit Partners to MWAA. MWAA will now have 15 days to review the submission and either give it a yay or nay. If MWAA approves the construction it would then be handed over to WMATA would will ultimately determine all compliance issues during a 60 to 90 day (though Richard Sarles is playing it safe) review period if its own. Fingers crossed folks can begin riding the new line sometime in July.
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New Transportation Secretary Aubrey Lane visited the Great Falls and McLean Citizen’s associations (just a coincidence in where he landed I’m sure) to talk about what the state is working towards in terms of transportation. He made some really great points, as the Connection Paper put it “Layne said transportation decisions are best solved on the local level, and all issues should be faced head on”.
Yes! Finally someone who, at a minimum, is paying lip service to the fact that VDOT for too long has had a single state wide cookie cutter solution regardless of what kind of neighborhood it is in. Layne could take it from talking to points to reality by implementing a new funding strategy for the state in which the state will disperse all capital (sub the maintenance) funds available in a given year to each County to do as they wish based on population. That of course would mean hundreds of millions coming to Northern Virginia that currently gets funneled to other parts of the state to help subsidized industrial uses and rural highway projects. Sure would be nice to have a couple hundred extra million in hand that wouldn’t have to go specifically towards VDOT mega projects. Issues like the trail master plan, rapid bus improvements, new urban roadways, and yes some highway widenings and interchange spot improvements on intercity routes could all find much more solid funding if our own money was allowed to be used by us on issues that we actually want solved. (Connection Newspaper)