Since Monday, Sept. 21, the bike and pedestrian path across the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge has been closed. The District Department of Transportation expects to reopen it in September 2027, ARLnow reported. Farther south, the Mount Vernon Trail has been on a construction detour at Gravelly Point since summer, and that one is scheduled to stay through 2030.
These are two different projects with two different agencies and very different end dates. What they share is how they end. The Roosevelt path comes back with a wider sidewalk, and the Gravelly Point detour ends with a new bike and pedestrian bridge into DC. For the next year, Arlington's walking and biking routes across the Potomac get longer. By the end of the decade, Arlington should have more ways across than it had before this work began.
The Middle Crossing Is Out for About a Year
DDOT's traffic advisory dated Oct. 12 confirms the path is closed and puts the detour in place for "approximately 12 months." Signed detours send people walking and biking to the two bridges on either side of it.
| Detour | Distance per DDOT's plan | Time on foot |
|---|---|---|
| Key Bridge, to the north | 2.3 miles | About 47 minutes |
| Arlington Memorial Bridge, to the south | 2.4 miles | About 50 minutes |
The two detours are nearly the same length on paper, so which one works better depends on where you start in Arlington and where you're headed in DC. Both are signed. No source gives the routes turn by turn, so the signs on the ground and DDOT's map on the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge project site are the references to use.
Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail told regular bridge users to "plan some extra time and a new route before heading out," ARLnow reported. Before the closure, one ARLnow reader raised a concern about the northern option. Key Bridge feeds into M Street NW, which the reader said "is not safe for bikes." Cyclists choosing between the two detours are likely weighing that same question about the DC end of the route.
Why the Path Had to Close Now
The path closure began the same day as the next phase of a rehabilitation that has been rerouting Arlington traffic since May 2025. The bridge opened in 1964 and carries about 95,000 vehicles a day, which ARLnow put at 25% of D.C. traffic across the Potomac. Crews are replacing the deck, and DDOT expects that to extend the structure's life by 20 to 30 years.
Drivers lost two I-66 westbound off-ramps on the same Sept. 21 date:
- The exit to Route 50 westbound, toward Arlington and Rosslyn, is expected to stay closed until March 2027.
- The exit to the northbound George Washington Memorial Parkway is expected to stay closed until May 2027.
DDOT's instruction for both is to stay on I-66 westbound, take Exit 73, and follow the posted detour. The I-66 mainline remains open.
The ramp rebuild also comes with a wider sidewalk, upgraded lighting, and new fencing, according to DDOT. So the people walking and biking who give up their crossing for a year are also among the people who gain from the work.
What Comes Back in September 2027
When the path reopens, it will not be the same path. The project widens the bridge's north sidewalk to 10 feet, upgrades the traffic barrier, and replaces all the existing signage.
There are two separate dates here. The path is expected back in September 2027, but DDOT expects the full bridge project to finish in spring 2028. After the path reopens, expect several more months of work on the bridge around it.
Gravelly Point: The Longer Detour, and the Bigger Payoff
The Roosevelt closure got the headlines. The Mount Vernon Trail detour at Gravelly Point will last much longer.
The National Park Service lists the detour on its George Washington Memorial Parkway current conditions page. It moved the trail around the Long Bridge Project construction zone starting July 15, 2026, and says it "will be in place through 2030." The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, which is building the project, gave earlier start dates in its spring fact sheets. In practice, the trail has been rerouted since summer.
From a July 30 presentation to the project's community advisory group, the detour comes down to a few specifics:
- It runs about a quarter mile, from north of Gravelly Point to the northbound I-395 bridge.
- It is paved and has streetlights.
- It crosses a construction access road, and trail users are asked to use caution there.
- It shifts toward the George Washington Memorial Parkway and gets a little narrower where it passes under the two existing bridges. Concrete barriers separate the trail from car traffic.
The trail stays open the whole time. VPRA's trail detour fact sheet asks users to follow the posted signs, slow down, watch for other trail users, and stay out of the work zones. The narrower section under the bridges is where those requests matter most.
Here is the payoff that makes the four-year detour worth knowing about. Alongside a new two-track rail bridge over the Potomac, the Long Bridge Project is building a new bike and pedestrian bridge. It will connect Long Bridge Park and the Mount Vernon Trail in Arlington to East Potomac Park in DC. VPRA's June fact sheet describes it as sixteen feet wide. The detour lasts as long as construction does, which is currently scheduled to finish in 2030.
Some of that work is already visible from the DC shoreline. According to VPRA's fall 2026 newsletter, crews installed more than 60 steel H-piles for a bridge abutment at Ohio Drive in East Potomac Park in late August, some as deep as 110 feet. That abutment is part of the foundation for the future rail bridge.
The project's other pedestrian news is easy to mix up with the river crossing. VPRA plans a temporary pedestrian bridge over Maine Avenue SW, with foundation work running through Thanksgiving 2026 and an opening expected in the months after. That bridge is on the DC side. It is not the new Potomac crossing, which is still tied to the 2030 schedule.
The Riverfront Map, by Year
Here is how the two projects line up for anyone on foot or a bike:
| Location | Now | Expected change | What replaces it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theodore Roosevelt Bridge path | Closed since Sept. 21, 2026 | Reopens around September 2027 | A north sidewalk widened to 10 feet |
| Mount Vernon Trail at Gravelly Point | Open on a quarter-mile detour | Detour lasts through 2030 | A new 16-foot bike and pedestrian bridge from Long Bridge Park to East Potomac Park |
| Key Bridge and Memorial Bridge | Carrying the Roosevelt detours | No change announced | Unchanged |
The Rosslyn end of the river is changing more slowly. In July 2026, Arlington County's bicycle and pedestrian advisory committees discussed the former Key Bridge Marriott site at 1401 Langston Boulevard. The site is in a special land-use study, and the concepts under discussion include expanded Custis Trail facilities and concerns about conflicts at N. Lynn Street and Langston Boulevard. These are still study ideas, not construction. They do touch the same corner where Key Bridge detour traffic now arrives.
If you walk or ride across the river every week, two numbers will shape the next year. The Roosevelt path comes back after roughly one more year of detours. The Gravelly Point detour runs for about three years after that and ends with a crossing Arlington has never had.
Dallen Russell spent years in remodeling before going into real estate, so he pays close attention to long construction timelines and to what's left once the crews pack up. If you're wondering how projects like these could affect your own street, or a home you're considering, Dallen Russell is glad to talk it through. Book a free consultation. Coffee's on me.
