Check out this video to see the actual detonation of explosive charges yesterday, at the 4500 East-West Highway construction site, from high above the site. Thanks to a very helpful reader for forwarding this. Blasting will resume Monday morning after 10:30 AM.
The office building project at the former Bethesda McDonald's site (4500 East-West Highway) is about to get complicated.
If you work in one of the many office buildings nearby, or live in the Topaz House or Riviera and are at home during daytime hours, it's also going to get loud.
Workers excavating at the south end of the site have struck a layer of solid rock. An engineering study has clarified that blasting is necessary to continue excavation.
Blasting will begin in the coming weeks. If you live around Bethesda Row, you know the drill.
If not, here is the signal code explosive technicians will use during blasting at this site:
° Long horn blast warning, 5 minutes before detonation
° 3 short horn signal immediately before detonation
° "All Clear" long horn blast after explosion
Isn't that going to be fun?
The other big news, is that the western lane of Pearl Street will close "on or around" Tuesday, March 12, 2013. Pearl Street, as I reported a few weeks ago, will become a southbound-only, one-way street for the duration of the building construction.
That western lane of Pearl will be sealed off with jersey barriers. And driver information signage will be placed along East-West Highway and Montgomery Avenue.
Support pile installation is now complete, and excavation will continue concurrent with blasting operations.
Pearl Street, between East-West Highway and Montgomery Avenue in downtown Bethesda, will become a one-way street during construction of a Class A office building at the former McDonald's location.
According to the developer of 4500 East-West Highway, the southbound lane of Pearl Street will be closed indefinitely "on or about" February 18, 2013.
For the duration of the building construction, Pearl Street will be a one-way, southbound-only street. Drivers will be unable to turn left onto Pearl from Montgomery Avenue.
Reader Diarmaid McGleenan submitted this aerial-view photo of the former East-West Highway McDonald's site. The restaurant was demolished a while ago. At the top of the lot is the auger that just finished drilling for the installation of the steel I-beams you see around the perimeter of the growing hole.
The excavation machine is already filling dump trucks, and eventually a crane will arrive onsite.
Montgomery County officials made quite a publicity stunt out of the groundbreaking for 4500 East-West Highway Thursday. The current McDonald's site is the future home of a new office building, as I reported many months ago.
One reader, Diarmaid McGleenan, provided some helpful details about the project. The power lines along Pearl Street will be buried prior to demolition and construction activities. Also, Montgomery Avenue will be reduced to 1 lane during off-peak hours, but expand back to 3 during most rush hour periods.
A good heads up for drivers traveling through that area.
But I thought the politicians' theatrics were a bit much. The relevant point is not so much that new, Class A office buildings are rare, as if development in itself solves an economic problem. Rather, it's that new, Class A office buildings are rare because the county has failed to attract the large employers who create the demand for such space.
And that is hardly cause to congratulate themselves. Bring the jobs, and the office space will follow.
