Expanding Trail Access: Holmes Run Getting Second Bridge

Holmes Run will soon have a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the waterway, this one at the Chambliss Street crossing on the western end of Dora Kelley Nature Park.

The construction is part of a multi-year project and part of the city’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Mobility Plan recommendations, said Carrie Sanders, Alexandria’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Program manager. The bridge is being installed to connect to Fairfax County pedestrian and bicycle trails.

The Alexandria trail along Holmes Run currently ends at the western end of Dora Kelley.

Work is also taking place to restore the stream bed at the same location, which has been damaged in past storms and shows erosion. The project will stabilize the bank using boulders and vegetation. The project began this past winter and is expected to be complete by summer, depending on weather conditions, Sanders said.

“There was a lot of feedback we received about that, that we received over the years, and it was in our plan, our Pedestrian and Bicycle Mobility Plan, to do that,” she said.

The project is costing about $1 million, including design. The construction contractor is Avon Corp. of Springfield.

The project is one of several currently under way or scheduled in the near future to improve conditions along Holmes Run. Also planned are a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the stream at North Ripley Street and improvements to the pedestrian tunnels under Interstate 395 and North Van Dorn Street, as well as repair of a Fairfax County sewer line under the waterway near North Paxton Street.

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