ROCKVILLE FREEWAY

UPDATE FOR

JANUARY 2012

Momentum continues to build for construction of the Rockville Freeway, to connect White Flint with the ICC (MD 200) near Indian Spring Country Club, via the Rockville Facility right-of-way.

KOHL'S COMING TO ASPEN HILL

Black Friday in Aspen Hill is going to be pretty exciting in a few years, and getting there for the sales will be a lot easier if the Rockville Freeway is built.

Kohl's plans to open a store on the lot of the former Super Fresh (although, if you're hardcore Aspen Hill, you know it as the A&P! And the Aspen Hill McDonald's once was one of the two best Roy Rogers in Montgomery County).

So at 10 PM on Thanksgiving, you're going to have a choice of Doorbusters at Kohl's, Walmart and Kmart. All three are within 1 to 1-and-a-half blocks of planned interchanges of the Rockville Freeway.

SAFETY, CONGESTION CONCERNS

A tragic, five-car pileup on 355 in late December caused a complete shutdown of Rockville Pike in Pooks Hill. Part of the wreck crashed through fencing of a private home along the road, and reignited safety issues. It was noted that, due to the failure to build roads like the Northwest Freeway, more traffic is forced to use 355.

More significantly, though, the shutdown highlighted the need for new roads to not only relieve traffic, but upon which rush hour commuters can be detoured in the event of just such an event.

I want to address the specific issue of the area between downtown Bethesda and Pooks Hill on 355 and 185 here on the blog in the near future.

But for this Rockville Freeway update, it's notable that the freeway would be an everyday relief valve for 355, by taking cars off that road and getting them going in the true directions they are trying to head towards.

WHERE'S THE ROCKVILLE FREEWAY?

Another missing road point was made by a commenter on Greater Greater Washington. GGW published an article asking if the ICC will ever be used in the numbers once projected. The commenter lamented the far-north alignment of the ICC, noting that he and other Bethesda and North Bethesda residents have little use for the road. He said he recalled that the ICC was once planned for a more southerly route. He was correct.

The road he was thinking of? That's right, the Rockville Freeway. The Rockville Facility right-of-way was once planned as the route of the Outer Beltway, a circumferential highway reduced to a straight line. That straight line was called the ICC. Protests had resulted in the ICC being moved north to I-370. That was when the Rockville Facility was redesignated as the route for the Rockville Freeway.

BIG ROCKVILLE FREEWAY ANNOUNCEMENT

Finally, the biggest Rockville Freeway news was the announcement by the Lerner Company that they intend to demolish White Flint Mall. Just after millions of new square feet of development had been added to the White Flint sector plan total, now the entire mall site is on the table.

2500 housing units are proposed, as well as retail and commercial development.

This was a troubling announcement because White Flint will be losing about 70% of the reasons people currently travel there. It may be that Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang's will reopen as first-floor streetfront restaurants in the new "town center" development." If they don't, or if there is a significant delay, White Flint will lose popularity. Studies show that once a business is closed, or has an erratic schedule, customers put it out of their minds and don't come back even once it reopens. By that time, they have a new routine and are used to shopping or dining elsewhere.

It's also sad to hear another mall joining the list of demolitions in the DC area. Montgomery Mall is where I've shopped all my life, so I don't have the emotional attachment to White Flint Mall that others might. But I hope we as a citizenry will make clear that the mall demolitions have to stop. No one is tired of shopping malls, and this trend is all about developers making money.

If the White Flint demolition is approved and a town center is built, however, it adds weight to the overwhelming need for the Rockville Freeway. I hope that Lerner will act responsibly and put its weight behind building this 60-year-old highway project.

# # #

The Rockville Freeway will connect massively expanding residential and employment centers like White Flint, Burtonsville, White Oak, Konterra and Columbia. There is no question that the demand and need are real. If Montgomery County and Maryland officials are to be taken at their word, there will be commuters traveling between these locations during rush hour, rather than the traditional north-south travel pattern.

It's not a question of whether or not we'll have growth. It's a question of whether we can move from so-called "smart growth," which leaves 85% of transportation capacity unbuilt, to "Responsible Growth," which provides 100% highway and transit capacity.

The answer in White Flint, Rockville, Bethesda and Aspen Hill is the Rockville Freeway. It can be built for less than $1 billion. The costs in lost revenue and productivity if we don't build it are far higher than that.