(Updated 6/29) After nearly seven hours of public comment, Alexandria’s City Council voted to move forward with the Duke Street Transitway.
The gist of the plan is to reconfigure sections of Duke Street to make the road more accessible to public transit, as well as making improvements to the pedestrian and cyclist experience along the arterial road.
After years of discussion, the Duke Street Transitway is headed to Alexandria’s City Council this week.
The plan is going to a public hearing at the City Council meeting tomorrow (Tuesday).
Westbound drivers may want to avoid Duke Street near Landmark next week as construction will shut down part of the road.
The closures will affect the westbound lanes on Duke Street between the off-ramp to Van Dorn Street and South Walker Street. The westbound lanes are scheduled to be closed from 10 p.m. on Tuesday to 10 p.m. on Friday.
Alexandria Police say that no arrests were made or injuries reported after multiple shots were fired outside a West End hotel late last month.
APD responded at around 9:30 a.m. to the 6200 block of Duke Street for a report of shots fired, and found two bullet casings in the middle of the parking lot, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
Back-and-forth arguments over the Duke Street Transitway had shades of Seminary Road at discussions during a Transportation Commission meeting last week.
The proposed transitway is part of the Duke Street In Motion project which aims to revamp Duke Street to prioritize public transit and walkability alongside car traffic. The transitway will potentially mix dedicated bus lanes and mixed-traffic lanes for a new system that should make transit more efficient along Duke Street.
An increase in crime has resulted in the Giant Food store at 3131 Duke Street locking one of its two front doors, as staff say that shoplifting has become a daily occurrence.
“It’s kids, grownups, everybody,” store manager Zaina Calo told ALXnow. “They try to steal fish, and from the whole meat and seafood department, wine. It doesn’t matter. Anything, really.”
A 14-year-old was arrested this weekend after an attempted carjacking on the 2700 block of Duke Street.
The incident occurred at Carydale East (2727 Duke Street) around 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 29.
A clerk at the 7-Eleven convenience store at 3023 Duke Street was shot in the leg in a robbery early this morning.
At around 2 a.m., a man dressed in black wearing a black mask went into the store, displayed a handgun and walked behind the counter, according to staff. The suspect reportedly shot into the floor behind the counter and the bullet ricocheted and hit the clerk in the leg.
Traffic might be a little slower around Lincolnia and Landmark this week due to lane closures on Duke Street.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) said in a release that there will be daytime closures on Duke Street between Oasis Drive and South Walker Street starting today (Tuesday) through Thursday.
Alexandria transportation officials say that a pilot program to ease evening congestion on and around Duke Street is working and they want to make the changes permanent.
City staff announced last night (Wednesday) that the first and second phases of the Duke Street Traffic Mitigation pilot have improved evening peak traffic and reduced cut-through traffic near the busy roadway. The project launched last summer with extended green traffic lights on Quaker Lane and Duke Street from 4 to 6 p.m., while green lights were shortened on West Taylor Run Parkway, Cambridge Road, Yale Drive and Fort Williams Parkway.
(Updated at 4:40 p.m.) An Alexandria man is being held without bond after allegedly carjacking a DASH bus in the West End last Thursday night.
Lorenzo Johnson, 33, was arrested after allegedly carjacking the bus near the intersection of Duke Street and Quaker Road. The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. No weapons were used and no one was injured in the incident, according to the Alexandria Police Department.
