Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Carmageddon? Part of SB MD 355 to close in downtown Bethesda this Saturday (Photos)

I noticed these vague electronic message signs promising what sounds like a traffic nightmare on Wisconsin Avenue - the closure of southbound MD 355 this Saturday, June 13, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Sure, it's not a weekday rush hour. But traffic can be mighty bad up and down 355 in Montgomery County on weekends.

So I had to check with the MD State Highway Administration. SHA Assistant District Utility Engineer Mark Loeffler said a portion of southbound Wisconsin Avenue will indeed be closed this Saturday morning.

The closure is required to accommodate a crane that will "hoist steel to the top of the building at 7514" Wisconsin Avenue, Loeffler explained. He expects the job to take "about a half of [a] day" to finish. 7514 is an office building.

Southbound traffic will be detoured onto Commerce Lane, Loeffler said. The only problem is, Commerce Lane will require a series of turns to get back to Wisconsin south of the closure. Old Georgetown Road is one-way heading away from Wisconsin where Commerce meets it. Then you'd have to turn onto Woodmont Avenue, turn left onto Montgomery Lane, and take Montgomery back to Wisconsin.
What could possibly
go wrong, right?

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:31 AM

    "What could possibly go wrong, right?"

    Right.
    Right...
    Left. Left.
    Right.
    To continue South.
    (Unless you want to nap at the Hilton. Then it's a Right, Right, Left, Left, Nap, Left, Right.)
    With ya on this one. :D At least there's no Go-Kart convention as well.




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  2. IrritatedDriver5:32 AM

    The amount of construction and road work going on this past year in downtown Bethesda, I've never seen anything like it before in my life. You try to detour around one obstacle, hit a second and then a third. When they set forth a detour route like this do they even check to make sure the route is free of additional construction and lane closures?

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  3. Anonymous5:46 AM

    They've torn up the sidewalks on East West Hwy again at the island at Montgomery. Once again creating an impossible to cross safely situation for many including BCC HS students. At least cars get detours.

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  4. Anonymous7:44 AM

    They are tearing down all our buildings and shipping them to northern Virginia for reassembly. Damned MoCo Machine and their Moribund Economy.

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