Fairfax County General :
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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
Commuter
()
Date: February 17, 2017 12:27PM
Why was Braddock Rd built with this awful S-curve? Why not make it straight? Any future plans to fix this?
Attachments:
Attachments:
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
Gen. Braddock
()
Date: February 17, 2017 12:35PM
There's gold buried there.
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
Land Deal
()
Date: February 17, 2017 12:44PM
During the early 1930's the military built a rocket complex to protect D.C. against attack. The complex required the higher elevation that this parcel of land offered.
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
LwCnu
()
Date: February 17, 2017 12:52PM
Do you know what an 'S' looks like? That looks more like a 'C' curve to me.
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
HnnWH
()
Date: February 17, 2017 01:18PM
Always wondered that myself, especially with all the trucks hauling debris driving pretty fast, makes me nervous and hate going that way to get to Cox Farm.
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
fracturedfairfax
()
Date: February 17, 2017 01:24PM
That's Rock Hill, and there's a fairly serious drop between the west end of the curve, which has an elevation of 300 feet, and the east, which is only 250 feet.
The straight-line distance between the two ends is only about 500 feet, so if you do a little calculation, a road that went straight through would have a grade of about 10%, which is unsafely steep.
To improve the grade, you have two choices. Make the path longer by incorporating a long curve, which is what they did, or spend millions of dollars to artificially lengthen the grade with fill towards the Cub Run side on the east. They went with the cheap option.
The road's been the shape it is for at least a hundred years: I checked both historical aerial imagery for 1937 and topographic maps to 1915, and both show the same curve. I suspect it's been that shape since the road was cut, and definitely since it was paved.
Historic aerial imagery - http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/photo.htm
Historic topographic maps - http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/
The straight-line distance between the two ends is only about 500 feet, so if you do a little calculation, a road that went straight through would have a grade of about 10%, which is unsafely steep.
To improve the grade, you have two choices. Make the path longer by incorporating a long curve, which is what they did, or spend millions of dollars to artificially lengthen the grade with fill towards the Cub Run side on the east. They went with the cheap option.
The road's been the shape it is for at least a hundred years: I checked both historical aerial imagery for 1937 and topographic maps to 1915, and both show the same curve. I suspect it's been that shape since the road was cut, and definitely since it was paved.
Historic aerial imagery - http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/photo.htm
Historic topographic maps - http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/
Absolutely Nothing You Need to Know About Fairfax County
Fractured Fairfax
https://www.fracturedfairfax.com
Unnatural Deaths in Fairfax County Map
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
3nN4G
()
Date: February 17, 2017 01:51PM
fracturedfairfax Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's Rock Hill, and there's a fairly serious
> drop between the west end of the curve, which has
> an elevation of 300 feet, and the east, which is
> only 250 feet.
>
> The straight-line distance between the two ends is
> only about 500 feet, so if you do a little
> calculation, a road that went straight through
> would have a grade of about 10%, which is unsafely
> steep.
>
> To improve the grade, you have two choices. Make
> the path longer by incorporating a long curve,
> which is what they did, or spend millions of
> dollars to artificially lengthen the grade with
> fill towards the Cub Run side on the east. They
> went with the cheap option.
>
> The road's been the shape it is for at least a
> hundred years: I checked both historical aerial
> imagery for 1937 and topographic maps to 1915, and
> both show the same curve. I suspect it's been that
> shape since the road was cut, and definitely since
> it was paved.
>
> Historic aerial imagery -
> http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/photo.htm
> Historic topographic maps -
> http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/
Thank you!
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's Rock Hill, and there's a fairly serious
> drop between the west end of the curve, which has
> an elevation of 300 feet, and the east, which is
> only 250 feet.
>
> The straight-line distance between the two ends is
> only about 500 feet, so if you do a little
> calculation, a road that went straight through
> would have a grade of about 10%, which is unsafely
> steep.
>
> To improve the grade, you have two choices. Make
> the path longer by incorporating a long curve,
> which is what they did, or spend millions of
> dollars to artificially lengthen the grade with
> fill towards the Cub Run side on the east. They
> went with the cheap option.
>
> The road's been the shape it is for at least a
> hundred years: I checked both historical aerial
> imagery for 1937 and topographic maps to 1915, and
> both show the same curve. I suspect it's been that
> shape since the road was cut, and definitely since
> it was paved.
>
> Historic aerial imagery -
> http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/photo.htm
> Historic topographic maps -
> http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/
Thank you!
Re: Braddock RD S-curve
Posted by:
readerofoldtimethreads
()
Date: February 17, 2017 02:15PM