FABB Blog

 

Reston Association to Plow Snow on County Trails in Reston

County trails in Reston [click on image for pdf version]

At their October 22 meeting, the Reston Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to work with Fairfax County to remove snow on county trails in Reston. Many of those trails are used to access the Wiehe-Reston East Metro station.

The RA Board agreed to "authorize Reston Association’s CEO to enter into trail maintenance agreements with Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Fairfax County Park Authority to provide limited routine maintenance on County-owned trails in Reston, subject to the review and approval of the Association’s land use counsel."

According to the draft snow removal agreement (p. 117), RA will "provide routine maintenance on approximately 1.5 miles of County and Park Authority owned trails throughout Reston. Such routine maintenance will include general debris removal, minor asphalt patching, pruning/edge mowing, leaf removal as necessary, and snow plowing. In the proposed agreement, the County trails will be repaired before the Association accepts any routine maintenance responsibility (including especially problematic stretches such as those on Wiehle Avenue and Sunrise Valley Drive), and the County will be responsible for major repairs and capital replacement." (emphasis added).

According to Reston Now, RA will cover the $15,000 cost for this routine maintenance. Reston currently spends over $800,000/year to maintain their 55 miles of trails. This year Fairfax County budgeted a measly $300,000 for "emergency and critical maintenance requirements for County trails (229 miles), sidewalks (425 miles) and (67) pedestrian bridges." Can't we do better than that? Is it any wonder that our exiting trails are crumbling and that almost none of them are plowed in the winter?

Kudos to Reston Association for helping bicyclists and pedestrians safely reach the Wiehle station and other nearby destinations throughout the year. Fairfax County needs to fund basic maintenance of their trails and come up with a plan for clearing snow near important destinations such as activity and transit centers. NoVa Parks recently agreed to plow the W&OD Trail. It's time for Fairfax County to get with the program.

Labels: reston association, snow, snow plowing, trail maintenance

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:04 AM permalink