Things haven't changed too much since my last update, other than the hole being slightly deeper, and pilings reinforcing the "walls" of the excavation. You can see how the Darcy's foundation and parking garage alone will be taller in height than the Barnes and Noble across the street (although they won't be visible once the project is completed, obviously).
Blasting at the Lot 31 construction site at Bethesda Row is scheduled to conclude tomorrow, says Tom Pogue of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. However, given that that assumes good weather - and rain is forecast all day today - there's a chance it could end Thursday instead.
Three construction cranes will be erected in the pit next week, and then concrete-pouring work will begin. Throughout next month, crews will construct foundations, footings and a drainage system.
During this, a new Bethesda Avenue entrance to the site will be utilized. Cement mixers and other trucks will enter and exit there, so be alert for flagmen while driving on Bethesda Avenue or Woodmont Avenue.
All of this work is to build The Darcy, The Flats, and a 900-space public parking garage at Bethesda Row.
A Montgomery Planning Department memo by Senior Planner David Anspacher provides not only an update on the future Purple Line light rail, but also some little-known effects it will have in the Bethesda Row area.
Earlier, I reported on the noisy nighttime Capital Crescent Trail tunnel work planned for the first half of March.
That is part of the preliminary design phase, which Anspacher says will conclude this summer. At that point, the Federal Transit Administration will accept that report, and issue a Record of Decision. Then there will be a mandatory referral of three projects: the rebuilding of the Capital Crescent Trail, the future Bethesda South Elevators that will access the Red and Purple Lines, and the Purple Line itself.
What's new?
South Entrance
While the long-overdue Bethesda Metro South Entrance elevator project has been much-discussed, this memo also mentions that the current Regal Bethesda 10-side parking lane on Elm Street will be seized for the elevator site.
The high-speed elevators will take pedestrians down to a lobby level for the Purple Line, and to the Metro Red Line mezzanine level. There will also be a stairway from Elm Street down to the Purple Line.
Capital Crescent Trail
The CCT is currently planned to cross Wisconsin Avenue as a glorified crosswalk, a potentially-dangerous situation that has concerned many trail users.
Anspacher says one option is to deny drivers left turns onto Wisconsin from Bethesda Avenue. However, that idea is opposed by the Town of Chevy Chase and some Bethesda businesses.
MCDOT is preparing a second option, which is simply a "protected" light cycle for trail users at the intersection.
The surprising part of the memo, is that planners have resurrected the idea of a new underground crossing under Wisconsin Avenue. They've asked the Maryland MTA to study the feasibility of such a tunnel - which was declared dead by the County Council last year - in time for its possible inclusion in the 2014 update of the Bethesda Central Business Sector Plan update.
Fan Towers - Bethesda Row "Smokestack"
Here's the big one. Maybe this was discussed in some meeting somewhere, or buried in thick reports, but this is the first I've heard of it:
A 9-story exhaust tower will be erected outside of the current Capital Crescent Trail tunnel entrance at Bethesda Row, in full view from Barnes and Noble, Landmark Bethesda Row Theatre, and Haagen Dazs.
Essentially a smokestack, it will only emit smoke during a smoke emergency within the tunnel. But the exhaust fans within the smokestack will have to be tested once a month, and are required by federal law.
A second smokestack will be at the Air Rights Building garage.
Planners clearly anticipate community displeasure regarding the smokestacks.
They are pleading with the MTA to find an alternative location, or to design "an iconic treatment that makes it a landmark in Bethesda." Good luck with that, man.
The only real hope of hiding the tower, in my opinion, is to incorporate it into the new Woodmont East development.
Elm Street Park
While Elm Street Park is not expected to be impacted physically by Purple Line construction, the MTA will erect screening to block the view of construction from park patrons.
What's really going on behind those fences, down in that hole where Lot 31 used to be on Bethesda Avenue?
You're about to find out with this exclusive photo gallery!
All the blasting and digging is making way for the massive public parking garage that will run beneath Woodmont Avenue. On top of that garage will rise two luxury, mixed-use residential buildings, The Darcy, and The Flats.
