Oct 22, 2018 PYMIG Meeting Summary
The PYMIG held a meeting at 7pm at the Charles Houston Recreation Center (CHRC) on October 22 at 7pm. The purpose of the meeting was to begin refining the amended design of the Metro Station. The presentation materials and a video of the meeting can be found at https://www.alexandriava.gov/PotomacMetroWorkGroup.
This meeting focused on the basic conceptual ideas for approaches to the Metro Station from the West (Potomac Yards) and East (Potomac Greens) sides as depicted in the presentation materials. The details of these ideas will be fleshed out in subsequent PYMIG Meetings.
On the West side there were 2 concepts: a ramp and walkway to the Station or a small pavilion with elevators and a set of stairs to the walkway to the Station. The members of the PYMIG were polled as to which of the 2 options were preferred. By a small majority, the ramp seems to be the preferred alternative. However, there was support for developing a third alternative that combined the best features of options 1 and 2. The discussion of the East approach from our side confirmed that the designers were looking at installing a set of stairs to supplement the 2 elevators giving access to the North mezzanine.
In addition, the WMATA and builder’s reps noted that the access path would be fairly substantial. That path will serve pedestrians and bicyclists wanting to access the Station as well as being able provide emergency vehicles access to the Station. Because of these multiple requirements, the path with be paved (material is TBD) and lighted and will be approximately 20 feet wide. Drawings of the approach on our side can be found in the presentation materials slides 18, 19 and 20 (Projected landscaping was omitted for clarity). Slide 19 shows a lighting configuration that would have the lights sitting atop tall poles. Slide 20 shows a lighting configuration that has the lighting at the level of the handrail. David Dunn, PG resident and PYMIG Representative for the Communities East of the CSX, and I prefer the configuration in slide 20 because it reduces light pollution and should provide more even lighting to pedestrians/bicyclists. A retaining wall will probably be necessary since there is a 12-foot drop in elevation along the access path. It was suggested that any retaining wall use the same look of ‘stacked stone’ as the current retaining wall between PG and the Metro tracks. The details of the approaches will be discussed in more depth at the next PYMIG meeting on October 29 at 7pm in the CHRC.
An update to the “Environmental” synopsis I provided about the Community Meeting relates to washing of truck tires before trucks leave the construction site. A question arose about the impact of washing contaminated soil off truck tires and then letting the runoff drain into the soil. The WMATA and construction reps said they are not permitted to allow runoff to drain into the soil where it could contaminate the groundwater. The runoff from the tire washing is collected into tanks and hauled away to designated disposal sites. At this point we don’t know what type of tire washing station will be used. However, here is a general overview of the types of tire washing stations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_washing_system.
An update to the “Schedule” synopsis is that there will be a PYMIG meeting on Monday, November 12, because City Offices will be open that day. However, the current proposal is to start the PYMIG meeting that day at 5pm versus the normal 7pm. I will let the community know when this firms up.