(Updated 8/3) The City of Alexandria is moving forward with the next stage of a pilot program to keep traffic on Duke Street and off residential streets, but Mayor Justin Wilson said in a recent newsletter that this is the start of a broader effort targeting cut-through traffic.
Wilson said the issue of congestion’s impact on the quality of life for Alexandrians came up during an update to the Alexandria Mobility Plan in 2021.
Some more closures are headed to Duke Street next week courtesy of the I-395 Bridge Rehabilitation project.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) said the street will have periodic closures from Sunday, Aug. 7 to Wednesday, Aug. 17.
Repaving season in Alexandria continues, this week with some neighborhoods south of Duke Street getting some love.
After repaving around the North Ridge neighborhood earlier this month, repaving is continuing in Del Ray and some of the streets south of Duke Street are getting some much-needed attention from yesterday through next Friday, Aug. 5.
The City of Alexandria said the results from traffic changes piloted on Duke Street earlier this year were promising, with the city starting to plan out Phase 2 next month.
The pilot changed signal timing, adding green time on Duke Street and Quaker Lane from 4-6 p.m. to encourage drivers to stay on the arterial roads.
City staff say that initial findings from a mitigation pilot along Duke Street earlier this year show the project was mostly successful in keeping traffic off neighborhood streets.
In a small update (page 10) prepared for the Traffic and Parking Board, city staff said initial findings showed the Duke Street Traffic Mitigation Pilot — which ran from January-April — mostly accomplished what it set out to do.
A power outage in Alexandria has impacted around 2,000 residents
A Dominion Energy outage map indicated that 1,998 customers are currently affected by the outage.
A 44-year-old Fairfax County man was arrested on June 22 and faces multiple charges for a February 22 crash on Duke Street that resulted in the death of a driver and injuries to other drivers.
Carlos Kami Adar McKethan was arrested subsequent to a direct Grand Jury indictment charging him with aggravated vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of Phencyclidine (PCP), according to the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter.
After road work on I-395 was rescheduled from this weekend, the highway will see closures starting tonight.
The Virginia Department of Transportation said several lanes of I-395 between Edsall Road and Duke Street are rescheduled to close between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. tonight through Thursday night.
Drivers along Duke Street in the West End should expect lane closures starting tonight and continuing intermittently through Friday, June 24.
The closures are connected to work on the Duke Street bridge over I-395 near Lincolnia. Planned improvements for the bridge include replacing the concrete bridge deck and beams, upgrading the westbound sidewalk to a shared-use path and widening the eastbound sidewalk.
Updated 10:45 p.m. — The question should read “increased car travel time” rather than reduced.
Alexandria is in the process of planning an overhaul to Duke Street, and while part of the project goal is improved transit
Alexandria Police are still investigating a February 22 crash on Duke Street that resulted in the death of a driver and multiple injuries. No one has been arrested in connection to the crash, even though one of the drivers involved was found to be in possession of cocaine and number of other suspected drugs.
“The crash resulted in one fatality, one critical injury, one serious injury, and two minor injuries,” APD said in a release. “Preliminary investigation suggests speed may have been a contributing factor in this incident.”
