The tower crane is up at the construction site of the future 7000 Wisconsin apartment building in downtown Bethesda. Work on the crane assembly began before dawn this morning, requiring lane closures on Wisconsin Avenue. Some side streets were temporarily blocked off as well, as large trucks and a crane-to-build-the-crane were brought in to assist.
Nice to see a tower crane back in downtown!
ReplyDeleteMany more are soon to follow at Hampden House apartments, 7607 Old Georgetown Road apartments, St. Elmo apartments, 4915/4921 Auburn apartments and the 8015 Old Georgetown Road apartments. Maybe soon at the fully entitled projects like Claiborne condos, 4824 Edgemoor condos, the Artena apartments, the Avondale apartments, 4725 Chetlenham apartments and the Hampden East office/apartment tower. A lufting crane is likely returning to Elm Street to finish construction of the new south entrance to the Metro.
With any luck, we might soon see 13 tower cranes in downtown, or perhaps even 16, as large sites like Hampden House, St. Elmo and 8015 Old Georgetown Road might each have two tower cranes on site.
Before folks freak out, remember nearly all of these projects have large ground level retail spaces, wider sidewalks and will have lots of nice street trees, new street lighting, benches, bike racks and fully underground but contained parking, as all are easily walkable to the Metro. Several new Capital Bikeshare stations are planned as well. Developers will be paying heavy development fees to expand area parks and schools. Many of these sites include large privately owned public spaces as well.
Great to see all this transit oriented development advancing in downtown Bethesda.