Poorly-timed lane closures on Old Georgetown Road, Arlington Road and Wilson Lane are causing worse-than-usual traffic congestion in that area of downtown Bethesda tonight.
I'd like to say to take the Northwest Freeway to avoid it, but they never built it. So you're stuck with Wisconsin Avenue as the alternative.
3 comments:
This is a fiasco. All roads leading to that intersection are jammed, including St. Elmo.
I had to Google this Northwest Freeway to see what you were talking about. I am realistic about the need for cars vs. idealistic just-bike-everywhere people, but wouldn't a freeway through the east part of downtown been kind of a disaster? It seems like a very 50s/60s way of planning, especially with the "shopping mall" planned on top the of rail ROW.
If the Northwest Freeway had been built, virtually everything that we consider successful in downtown Bethesda would still have been here. There would have been a freeway, probably down in a trench, behind the Bethesda Theater, Farm Women's Market, etc. The right-of-way was mostly what we know today as small parks and parking lots/garages. Obviously, additional development since that time has made it highly unlikely to be built. But the direct connection and ramps into Walter Reed and to 495/270 would have saved us a lot of BRAC money, time and grief.
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