Hazards for the bleary-eyed

Im on ur front stoop waiting for ur barefoot morning newspaper run

Just waitin' to tickle those toesies...

Flash Flooding hits area roads

 Our all-day detour at Telegraph and Wilton Rds.

Overnight, a water main broke on Telegraph Road. Telegraph's just two lanes along here, but it's a major thoroughfare for many subdivisions to the south.

Southbound traffic, coming from a brief foray up Franconia Rd.

It's a horrid choice of road for closures. All day long, cars spilled the banks of Franconia Rd. gushing through the residential detour that flowed around the work.

The Channel 7 news team reporting live at the scene of the backup

Two little lanes of road, so many vehicles- the overflow sends waves onto surrounding streets. Streets already saturated from previous commuter traffic- and flash traffic flooding hit Franconia Road.  Channel 7 News sent a reporter to cover the crisis.

We have way too many cars on the roads around here.

Divergence

Contractors move fiber for the cable company onto the new poles at S. Benson.

Preparation for road widening continues: Two down, one to go.  The electric has moved; today the cable is moving onto the newer poles.

Just the phone line left to cut over.

Noisy on both sides of the tracks.

Coal cars rumble across Slater's Lane on their way to the Mirant Power plant in the city of Alexandria. The plant supplies a significant amount of electricity to the District of Columbia, across the river.

(As usual, click to embiggen)  

The Potomac Freight yard in Alexandria was once a primary terminus for northbound rail freight. Much of the track has been pulled out and replaced by shopping and higher-end housing, save for the lone RF&P line carrying freight, Amtrak and VRE commuter trains across the 14th street bridge into DC.

North of Old Town, a spur crosses the GW Parkway, ending at the Mirant coal-burning power plant. Fuel delivery.  The train mostly used to just run past lower income housing and high rises; there are several public housing units within a few blocks radius to the south, past Slater's Lane on the far side of those coal cars.

Now all this newly developed real estate, with location (near public transportation), location (an Old Town address) location (near a source of pollution.)  I'm kinda guessing the newer neighbors who don't like the plant in their back yard might have a bit more political clout, and who have come to expect being heard when they grumble. Lately, there's been a whole lot more noise about the plant, which was shut down in 2005 for polluting, then forced to reopen in 2006.

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Some background: Washington Post on the plant reopening

Bright lights in the Dark Night

Bringing some new life to a big, empty parking lot

Save the remaining Chuck. E. Cheese, the Plaza at Penn Daw has been pretty empty lately- as has the parking lot! But while the property owner, developers, neighbors and county officials go 'round and round trying to figure out what to do with the property, at least some people could go 'round and 'round for a bit, enjoying bright lights and lots of fun!

ghost people ride the swings

The Ferris Wheel up close

Language realities- You must be as tall as this sign in two languages in order to ride! 

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The folks at the show were ok with me shooting inside their periphery- so long as it was of rides, not people. Sunday was the last night, they're breaking down and moving to the next stop. For me, getting pictures of faces will have to wait for another carnival, and the season's just beginning- but here are some surfing launch points for fun. If you like to see faces of people at Carnivals, check out some of the links:

The travelling show's web site

A lovely photo gallery by a St. Louis photographer, Virginia Lee Hunter, looking at carnivals and carnival life in middle America

and one of the young ladies in the ticket booth pointed me to a documentary the Carnival.

PSA

New power poles going in at S. King's Hwy and S. Benson Dr.

To those of you who travel South King's Highway daily- those for whom Harrison Lane is the most convienient only way between Springfield and Richmond Highway for 8 miles south: HEADS UP. You may wish to find another way to get there. It's about to get ugly.  Consider learning a different route. Soon.

S. King's Highway, southbound from Harrison Ln. Sunday, Apr. 5 2009, 1:45pm

Not that we don't need some room to breathe. No room for right on red eastbound to north at this T intersection, no room for a bus to safely stop, and northbound traffic often starves southbound traffic of left turns. There is no left turn lane going south.

The current county plan calls for storm drain replacement under S. King's Hwy. When all is paved over, we are supposed to have a left turn lane for southbound traffic, a right turn lane for northbound traffic, plus a 5' trail on the east side of the road.

New Power Poles will be on the street side of the sidewalk.

The new poles are noticeably higher than the older ones. Better nutrition? Poles getting stooped in old age? Or is there an HGH issue with young, up-and-coming utility poles?

Notice, though, how much yard the folks on S. King's are losing - the new utility poles are going to be on the street side of the 5' paved trail. The current trail does get a lot of foot and bike traffic, but peds and bikes will need to detour down S. Benson. The trail will be closed to foot traffic during construction.

Even though work has been ongoing, I've held off on posting this until at least I saw a bid announcement, indicating things might actually start happening. Per to the Fairfax county web page, Contract No. CN08304365, South Kings Highway/Harrison Lane Intersection Improvement, was announced for bids, and bids were due May 5.  "Contract length is 270 days."

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Source for much of this info comes from Larry Ichter, Fairfax County Department of Transportation, in his presentation to the VA Hills Citizens Assn., 2/10/2009.

When they talk about "the greening of America" ...

...I don't really think "enough pollen to be considered a paint job" was what they had in mind.