Senator Tim Kaine joined a group of Appalachian Trail (AT) advocates at Bluemont’s Bears Den Trail Center on July 13th to talk about the perilous state of AT road crossings in Northern Virginia.
AT hikers must routinely run across lanes of speeding traffic on Routes 50, 7 and 9 (Ashby, Snickers and Keys gaps) to continue on the trail. Though yellow crossing signs were installed recently, serious concern about the safety of pedestrians remains.
Senator Kaine met with Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) President Jim Fetig, PATC District Manager Chris Brunton, Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) President Sandi Marra, Clarke County Administrator Chris Boies, Clarke Board of Supervisors Vice-Chair Terri Catlett, Commonwealth Transportation Board Member Scott Kasprowicz and AT Community ambassadors from Round Hill, Hillsboro and Bluemont.
Following a roundtable discussion of the issues hikers face at each of the crossings, the group gathered at the site of the Route 7/Harry Byrd Highway crossing to look at the hazards faced by hikers trying to safely cross there. Clarke County supervisors have worked with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to approve tentative designs for a pedestrian bridge over the highway.
The AT stakeholders meeting with Senator Kaine agreed that the Route 7 pedestrian bridge should be the first priority, and Kaine offered advice for securing federal funding for the proposed triple-span, steel bridge. The project would require a modest realignment of the AT, and both ATC and the PATC support this.
Scott Kasprowicz made suggestions about safety improvements that could be made at Rte. 50 and Rte. 9, including solar-powered, motion-sensitive warning lights and clearly defined crosswalks.
Kaine, who documented his 544-mile completion of Virginia’s section of the Appalachian Trail in his recent book, Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside, expressed a commitment to stay involved with work to improve AT safety in Northern Virginia.
