Leggett Joins Lieutenant Governor Brown, Federal Delegation, Local and State Dignitaries to Celebrate Start of Cedar Lane Intersection Improvement

BRAC Project Will Help Reduce Bethesda Traffic Congestion

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (third from left) joined federal, state and local officials to celebrate the greenlighting of another BRAC project; the MD 355 and Cedar Lane Intersection Project in Bethesda. Pictured from left to right are: Deputy Transportation Secretary Wilson H. Parran, Senator Richard Madaleno, Leggett, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown, Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin and County Councilmember Roger Berliner.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett joined Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown to celebrate the start of improvements to the Cedar Lane and MD 355/Rockville Pike intersection -- a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) project to help mitigate the traffic impacts from the expansion of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). Leggett joined U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards and Deputy Transportation Secretary Wilson H. Parran to highlight the many other BRAC-related improvements that have been made to ease traffic in Bethesda.

Staff at WRNMMC has increased from about 8,000 to nearly 11,600 and the number of visitors, most of whom arrive by car, has doubled to nearly one million. In 2007, Montgomery County and State of Maryland officials, together with community leaders and the U.S. Navy, created a comprehensive mobility plan to address the traffic impacts of BRAC through projects that improve traffic flow at key intersections and provide better pedestrian and bicycle access.

Montgomery County and the State of Maryland began implementing the plan, but additional resources were needed to complete it. The County’s congressional delegation, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and Congressman Chris Van Hollen, succeeded in obtaining nearly $120 million from the Federal government to make all the changes needed.

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has completed construction of the following new and upgraded hiker-biker paths and sidewalks to serve the Medical Center with the help of a U.S. Department of Defense grant:

• A hiker-biker path along Jones Bridge Road from Rockville Pike to Connecticut Avenue, provides a connection to the Capital Crescent and Rock Creek trails; 
• A hiker-biker path along Cedar Lane, from Rockville Pike to Old Georgetown Road, and a wider Cedar Lane bridge across Rock Creek connects to the Bethesda Trolley and Rock Creek trails; and 
• New and improved sidewalks and bike paths serve the Medical Center on Rockville Pike and in the Battery Lane neighborhood. 

The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) will upgrade the Cedar Lane intersection to: 

• Add a southbound left turn lane onto Wilson Drive (at the National Institutes of Health) from westbound Cedar Lane. 
• Add a northbound right turn lane onto Cedar Lane from North Wood Drive, Naval Support Activity Bethesda. 
• Add a morning rush hour signal for southbound left turns onto North Wood Drive, Naval Support Activity Bethesda. 
• Increase space for more vehicles waiting to turn left going southbound at North Wood Drive, Naval Support Activity Bethesda. 
• Increase space for more vehicles waiting to turn left going northbound at the National Institutes of Health commercial vehicle inspection facility. 
• Replace two culverts beneath Rockville Pike/MD 355 at Cedar Lane. 
• Restripe Cedar Lane (no lanes added) to facilitate turns and traffic flow. 

SHA is also making improvements to three other major intersections that serve the Medical Center that will enhance traffic flow and promote pedestrian safety. The projects are fully funded with monies from the Federal government and the Maryland Department of Transportation:

• Rockville Pike at Jones Bridge Road 
• Connecticut Avenue at Jones Bridge Road 
• Old Georgetown Road at Cedar Lane 

Next year, MCDOT will begin a $68 million project to construct major upgrades to the Medical Center Metro Station, including a bank of deep elevators to the Metrorail platform on the Naval Support Activity Bethesda side of MD 355/Rockville Pike and a shallow pedestrian underpass to allow thousands of bus and carpool commuters and pedestrians to cross Rockville Pike safely.

More detailed information on the Bethesda area BRAC projects is available on the County’s website.

Leggett Objects to MTA Proposal to Eliminate Three ICC Commuter Bus Routes; MTA to Hold Public Hearings in June

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett opposes the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) proposal to eliminate three commuter bus routes along the Inter County Connector (ICC) that serve Walter Reed-Bethesda, the Shady Grove Red Line Metro Station and other stops.

In his letter, Leggett notes that this commuter bus service is part of a comprehensive traffic strategy developed by the Maryland and Montgomery County departments of Transportation in collaboration with the Navy, the National Institutes of Health and the local community to mitigate the effects of BRAC (the Base Realignment and Closure Act) in Bethesda. BRAC has increased staff at Walter Reed-Bethesda by about 45 percent.

MTA will hold public hearings June 4 through 6 on its proposed elimination of three commuter bus routes along the InterCounty Connector.

The affected routes are:

• Route 202: Weekday peak service between Gaithersburg and DOD/Fort Meade 
• Route 203: Weekday peak service between Columbia and Bethesda 
• Route 204: Weekday peak service between College Park and Germantown 

For more information about the dates, times and locations of the public hearings, visit MTA’s website.

Metro Board Advances New Entrance at Medical Center Station

A project to build a new entrance at the Medical Center Metro station and a pedestrian crossing under Wisconsin Avenue to the east side of Rockville Pike (Maryland Route 355) was approved by the Metro Board of Directors this month. The Maryland Route 355 Crossing Improvements project will help accommodate increased transit ridership resulting from the expansion of the Navy National Medical Center by enhancing pedestrian access and safety.

Four new escalators and two new elevators will access the pedestrian tunnel from street level. Three new high-speed elevators will connect the pedestrian tunnel with the station mezzanine level. 

Montgomery County Executive Ike Legget, U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin and U.S. Congressman Chris Van Hollen announced funding for the project in August 2012. Under the arrangement, the Department of Defense and the Federal Highway Administration will fund the $68 million project. The funds will be paid to Montgomery County, which will have responsibility for designing and constructing the new entrance starting this spring.

This project is part of the County’s effort to relieve traffic congestion resulting from the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC) that moved the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC to the campus of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, adding about 2,500 employees to the area and potentially doubling the outpatient visits to nearly one million annually. 

More information about BRAC is available on the County’s website.

Bethesda Avenue-Woodmont Avenue Project Update

Work continues on the public-private partnership project located on the former parking lot (Lot 31) at the corner of Bethesda and Woodmont avenues in Bethesda:

Construction blasting resumed the week of January 14. Blasting will occur about twice a day between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Before an impending blast, a horn is sounded about 15 minutes and again five minutes prior to the blast, and then immediately after the blast.

For more information on parking options in Bethesda, visit the Division of Parking Management’s website.

Montgomery County Receives Grant for BRAC-Related Transportation Improvements

Due to changes at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) in Bethesda resulting from the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC), personnel at the facility is expected to increase by almost one-third -- to10,200 -- and the visitor load to double to one million a year.  To improve transportation access, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently announced that Montgomery County has received a $40 million grant from the Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment. The grant will fund improvements to facilitate a safer and easier commute for patients, service members and civilian employees of WRNMMC, as well as the Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bethesda campus.
The funding will be used to:

• Design and construct a pedestrian and bicycle passageway under Maryland Route 355 (Rockville Pike), connecting the WRNMMC and NSA on one side of the road to the Medical Center Metrorail Station and transit center on the other side. 
• Fully fund three, high-speed elevators to connect the WRNMMC and NSA at street level to the Metrorail mezzanine level located 120 feet below ground.
• Make improvements at the main entrance to the NSA campus to facilitate traffic flow.

The grant will supplement over $28 million in previously received Defense Department funding to relieve traffic congestion.  Montgomery County will complete the project in coordination with the Maryland State Highway Administration, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Highway Administration’s DelMar Division and the Command at NSA Bethesda.
More information about BRAC is available on the County’s website at montgomerycountymd.gov/brac.

Construction Alert in Bethesda: BRAC-Related Improvements Underway Through Early November

To accommodate increased traffic resulting from the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC), the Navy has been working to improve traffic flow in and out of its five gates on Rockville Pike and Jones Bridge Road that serve the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.  The Navy has completed work at both gates on Rockville Pike and at two of three gates on Jones Bridge Road.  Construction at the last gate, the Gunnell Road/Navy Exchange Gate, is underway.

The upgrades will help address traffic congestion and coordinate with projects underway to improve pedestrian and vehicle access at the Medical Center Metro Station and at intersections on Rockville Pike, Jones Bridge Road, Cedar Lane, Connecticut Avenue, and Old Georgetown Road.

The gate construction near the corner of Rockville Pike will affect traffic on westbound Jones Bridge Road.  Drivers should expect single lane closures.  Pedestrians will be affected by the temporary closure of a portion of the sidewalk on the north side of Jones Bridge Road.

For more information about BRAC’s impact in Montgomery County, visit the County’s BRAC website.