Sunday, March 10, 2024

Mysterious tower crane appears behind Bethesda McDonald's


Tower cranes haven't been seen for decades in the Westbard area of Bethesda, and now there are two. One has a publicly-announced purpose, to assist in construction of the Kensington Senior Living apartment building on the former Westwood Center II site. But the second, which just appeared days ago behind the McDonald's on River Road, does not. 


The crane does not reach far enough to assist the KSL project. A long-delayed self-storage project behind the McDonald's is nearly six years behind schedule, but tower cranes are not used to construct self-storage buildings. The self-storage building here will be only three stories tall when completed. Very strange!

View of both tower cranes from
Westbard Avenue




13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The choice is between: Who wants to live in Bethesda and Who was to leave from Bethesda.

Anonymous said...

Simple Answer: The Self Storage Building goes 3 or 4 Floors Underground, allowing almost half the storage units to be below ground level

Anonymous said...

When one does look at the degradation all around us it is apparent that a 'line in the sand' needs to be firmly drawn. There is absolutely nothing keeping all of lower Montgomery County from becoming no better, or safer than Silver Spring. And by all measures, SS is almost (read: totally) lost already. Bethesda will not escape with the trajectory we have enabled.

Anonymous said...

It is for the storage unit project. They finally blasted through the rock/granite that has held the project up for so long

Anonymous said...

@3:50PM - Bye Felicia!

Anonymous said...

If the answer to this question is unclear to you, perhaps you should leave, and leave room for more folks to enjoy the incredible lifestyle options of living in a dense, urban, walkable, transit-oriented downtown.

Did you know that within the very compact one square mile area of downtown Bethesda, there are about 200 restaurants and cafes, 500 retail shops and businesses, six grocery stores, six high rise hotels, an eight-plex cinema, three performing areas theaters, an elementary school, a high school, a library, a post office, a police station, two fire and rescue stations, two farmers markets, several churches, dozens of high rise multi-family apartments, condos and workplaces (including several world headquarters), all among dozens of urban plazas, county parks and green spaces, a central Metro station and soon a light rail station, and a second Metro entrance?

Anonymous said...

How many head shops and tattoo parlors?

Anonymous said...

2:12 AM Our perennial protector has stated in the past: "We will not lose Silver Spring!" Which implied that Bethesda is up for grabs.

Anonymous said...

7:39 AM It sounds like you are a prisoner of infinite choice!

Anonymous said...

It's too much to expect a crime free safe environment, and too much to expect our local elected to aspire to the same?

Anonymous said...

6:25 AM Can you think of a more fertile ground for crime of opportunity than downtown Bethesda?

Anonymous said...

You, Sir or Madam, have hit the nail on the head. What can we do, right now, to change the course of rampant crime? Doing noting but mollycoddling ain't gonna work. Lady Saturday
, judging by the hot rods, panhandling, littering, sit down scooters on sidewalks , Bethesda is already much changed this new season. Won't get better on its own.

Anonymous said...

SS is long gone.