Another accident at the big curve

 

Another rainy day, another accident on the outer loop of Interstate 495 at the "Big Curve" in Bethesda, MD. Traffic is backed up past Old Georgetown Road and the backup continues to grow, even though some lanes do get by. According to WTOP, this happened about 10 minutes until 1pm and the two left lanes are blocked.

Construction closes a portion of the Little Falls trail

 

The Little Falls Trail bridge closest to the Dalecarlia tunnel has been closed for some planned improvements.  I posted about this construction back in September, and it has now started.  This bridge (P17-01) is being replaced, the trail in the area will be repaved, and there will be drainage improvements and stream channel stabilization.  More information is available on the county website.  

Removing the demolished WMAL radio towers

 After the WMAL radio towers were demolished Wednesday morning, they almost immediately started cutting them up and removing them.  The three near Greentree Rd were removed on Thursday and Friday, then on Monday they returned to remove the tower near Renita Ln.  By Monday evening there was just a small amount of cut-up steel lying on the ground.

 The powerful machine you see here would cut through the tower, breaking it down in to a managable size.  It could then pick it up and move it out of the way. the segment looks small, but notice at the bottom part you can see the ladder that went up the tower, this is a good sized chunk of metal.

 While one machine was cutting the tower up, another would scoop up the cut metal debris and move it to the edge of the property for pick-up.

 Here the machine reaches out and takes a bite from the tower. Another tower lies in the background.

 As powerful as the machine is, it can also gently grasp the fallen metal and pick it up, moving it away from the main tower. At this point there is just a stub remaining.

 After the tower was completely cut up, the only thing remaining was to pick up piles of metal and move them to the edge of the property.

 The once majestic towers are reduced to piles of metal like this, just waiting to be picked up and disposed of.

 

If you missed it, you can read my post about the demolition and the field of fallen giants

The Field of Fallen Giants (WMAL Radio tower demolition)

 

The towers were demolished on Wednesday the 4th and for the past couple of days I have walked around the field checking out how things are going.  This post is about the towers now that they are down on the ground.  Here are the three of towers closest to Greentree Road,  they used to stand majestically, all in a row.  Now they have been knocked down and lie in the field.

Here is the tower closest to Renita Lane, this former colossus looks like it is relaxing on the ground, having gotten tired of standing.

These two towers fell across each other and lie in the field.  In the background you can see a smaller tower that has also been knocked down.

This tower bent over as it fell.  It also took out part of the roof of the small building that was at it's base.  Three of the four towers bent like this.

Unlike the others, this one pulled away from its mounting pad as it fell, like a tree ripped up by the roots.

This machine will cut the towers into pieces.  Here they are getting it ready to go.

The WMAL radio towers have been demolished.

 

Promptly at 9am this morning  the WMAL radio broadcast towers were brought down with carefully timed explosive charges.  There were a reasonably sized group of people at the Renita Lane entrance to the towers where I was.  Earlier in the morning I spoke to one of the people who was detonating the charges and he said that the plan was to do a quick perimeter sweep right at 9am and set them off as soon after that as possible.  He was planning to be safely behind his truck, out of sight of the towers.  Everyone was kept well behind the fence, right at the edge of the property so the chance of any debris coming that far was very small.

In addition to the normal neighborhood people, there were several who grew up in the area but no longer lived there, including one person I talked to who had climbed all four towers as a teenager, and been arrested as he came down from one.

The towers were removed so that the Amalyn Bethesda project consisting of 309 single family houses and townhouses can be built in this area. 

The WMAL radio towers are coming down this week

 

After a long delay, the WMAL radio antenna towers on Greentree Rd in Bethesda, MD are scheduled for demolition later this week.  The towers will be brought down in a controlled explosion no earlier than Wednesday November 4th.  The original plan was to demolish them earlier this year, but they hadn't done all the needed conservation work on the site.

All the permits are posted at the entrance to the site. From left to right: Explosives permit, Demoliton permit, Sediment Control Permit, Right-of-way construction permit.

They have the notices posted at several entrances to the field so no one misses them.

The towers are being removed so that the Amalyn Bethesda project consisting of 309 single family houses and townhouses can be built in this area.  In order to get planning board approval they also donated a portion of this field as a potential school site.

This project has been in progress for a number of years.   I first posted about it more than 5 years ago, in July of 2015.