State proposes third left-turn lane on Jones Bridge Road at Connecticut Avenue

Traffic jam on Jones Bridge Road
at Connecticut Avenue

The Maryland Department of Transportation is proposing another BRAC-related traffic project for the troubled intersection of Jones Bridge Road and Connecticut Avenue. MDOT plans to add a third left-turn lane on Jones Bridge for eastbound drivers turning onto Connecticut.

A public meeting to provide information on the plans is scheduled for Thursday, December 6, 2018 from 7:00-9:00 PM in the cafeteria at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, located at 4301 East-West Highway. There will be no public testimony, and no formal presentation will be delivered. Instead, there will be displays set up around the room and state officials standing by to answer questions.

The proposed project plans indicate MDOT will also add improved stormwater drainage and a shared-use path. MDOT says it plans to begin relocating affected utilities at the intersection as early as this fall, even though the project design is not yet complete.

Despite previous expensive projects to add turning lanes at this spot, traffic remains jammed during rush hour, and whenever there is a large exodus of employees from the base trying to reach the Beltway. The real solution is to force the Pentagon to use the direct Beltway access points into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that were planned and provided long ago, which would take Walter Reed-Beltway-related traffic entirely off of local streets and avoid all signal timing problems at the busy Jones Bridge-Connecticut intersection.

BRAC MD 355 tunnel project scheduled to begin Tuesday in Bethesda

Construction of a pedestrian tunnel under Rockville Pike (MD 355) to create a safer pedestrian connection between the Medical Center Metro station and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was expected to begin in mid-2017. But contractor Clark Construction has already requested a noise waiver from Montgomery County, and the County states that the preliminary work will begin Tuesday, December 13.

The project, on which the Montgomery County Department of Transportation is the lead agency, is being fully funded by the federal government (a.k.a. you, the federal taxpayer) to the tune of $110 million. In addition to the tunnel, high-speed elevators open to the public on the Walter Reed side of the Pike will give access to the Metro underground.

Once excavation of the tunnel gets underway (they are going to use cut-and-cover rather than a boring machine to dig the tunnel), there will be lane closures on Rockville Pike. That will pile-on to the existing traffic nightmare.

Completed projects on Jones Bridge Road and Connecticut Avenue, which promised to move cars between Walter Reed and NIH and the Beltway, turned out to be a complete failure and waste of taxpayer dollars. Residents gave up big chunks of their front yards for nothing. The line to turn left onto Connecticut during the afternoon rush is, if anything, longer than it was before. Jones Bridge is a nightmare, as is 355. And traffic now backs up from the on-ramp to the Inner Loop, jamming traffic on Connecticut. 

Long stretch of Beltway
that runs alongside
Walter Reed campus would
have been the logical place
to use $110M to construct
ramps and flyovers to keep
base traffic off local roads

Hopefully this project won't deliver such disastrous results, but the money $11 million spent on that, the $110 million going to the tunnel, and the "Herculean efforts of Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and Congressman Chris Van Hollen," - to quote County Executive Ike Leggett - would have been better spent on forcing the feds to require direct access ramps into and out of Walter Reed from the Beltway. 

We are led by very stupid people, folks. Montgomery County needs to be smart to move forward, and we clearly don't have that leadership now. What good is all of the "deep intellect" and "experience," if you don't know what the hell you're doing?

Update 12/12/16: The project is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, December 13 and end in May 2020.

Assault on Wisconsin Ave., drug bust on Kingswood Rd. + more - Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on July 11, according to crime data:

Assault. 7300 block Wisconsin Avenue.

Vehicle burglary. 7600 block Fairfax Road (Edgemoor).

Vehicle burglary. 6700 block Kenwood Forest Lane.

Vehicle burglary. 4600 block Jones Bridge Road.

Vehicle burglary. 5600 block McLean Drive (Whitehall Manor).

Theft. 4500 block Willard Avenue.

Drug arrest. 5900 block Kingswood Road.

Vehicle burglary. 4800 block Cloister Drive.

Vehicle burglary. Wildwood Shopping Center.

Theft. 5100 block Nicholson Lane.

Assault. 11500 block Rockville Pike (Pike District).

Theft. Westfield Montgomery Mall.

MORE AUTO BREAK-INS IN BETHESDA, JONES BRIDGE ROAD ASSAULT - BETHESDA CRIME UPDATE

Thieves broke into cars and/or stole items from them in the downtown Bethesda area on Monday, according to crime data.

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on January 6:

Vehicle burglary. 4900 block Auburn Avenue.

Theft. 4700 block Rosedale Avenue.

Vehicle burglary. 4900 block Battery Lane.

Burglary. 4300 block East-West Highway.

Assault. Vicinity of Jones Bridge Road and Glenbrook Parkway.

Vehicle theft. 3300 block Jones Bridge Court.

Theft. 5900 block Searl Terrace (Springfield neighborhood, River Road corridor).