Sunday, November 28, 2021

The Westbard area of Bethesda

 There is a lot of redevelopment scheduled in the Westbard area of Bethesda, around River Road, it has even started in the strip mall that contains the Giant Foods.  Here is a point-in-time look at the area.  It will be interesting to revisit this in a few years and see what has changed.

This boarded up building on the corner of Ridgefield Road and River Road was once Springhouse Manor Care

.


This former Citgo gas station on Westbard Avenue awaits redevelopment.


The front of West Wood Center II.

 

Another view of Westwood Center II on the corner of Westbard Ave and Ridgefield Rd.


Looking South on River Road, Sunoco on the left, Talberts and MacDonalds on the right.


The Liberty Gas Station on River Road in Bethesda, MD. Behind it is the Marathon Gas station.


The strip mall with Whole Foods in it.  A new facade is going up here.


Right on River Road across from Whole Foods is the American Plant garden center and nursery. They used to be called American Plant Food Co., Inc.

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Fallen tree on Little Falls Trail

Another observation from my walk on Little Falls Trail yesterday. A long-dead tree fell and currently blocks Little Falls trail.  In the background you can see a car that is driving on Massachusetts Avenue.

You can see this is not the first time a tree has fallen down this hill and blocked the trail.  I wonder what is causing this.


 

Sewage Overflow in Little Falls park

 

I was walking on the Little Falls Trail near the Dalecarlia Reservior and saw that starting on Wednesday the 17th and not fully remediated yet, there was a sewage overflow at the southern end of Little Falls Stream Valley park.  There are numerous signs posted along the trail there.


There are two big pumps for pumping sewage into one of the sewer manholes.  The pumps mostly, but don't completely, blog the Little Falls Trail right near the Capital Crescent Trail.


A temporary sewage line is propped up across Little Falls Creek.


A black temporary sewage pipe going up the hill along the Little Falls Trail.  The fence on the left is the boundary for the Dalecarlia Reservoir Grounds.




Saturday, October 30, 2021

Auburn Professional building demolition site


 The demolition of the Auburn Professional building at 4915 Auburn Ave in Bethesda, MD (and the adjacent Huntington Learning Center/Maryland Radio building) is technically not complete, but it is close. Most of the debris hav been cleared, there is just a couple piles of metal and a layer of brick and concrete block are left on the ground.


Here's another view of the demolition site on Auburn Avenue, you can also see the building next to it has a new mural that looks to still be in progress.


The ground level view shows the piles of metal at the site of the former Auburn Professional building.



Friday, October 29, 2021

A burning tree along Fernwood road


 This morning a tree fell on a power line and caught fire on Fernwood Road by Interstate 495 in Bethesda, Montgomery County fire and Pepco responded, blocking off Fernwood Rd for a considerable period of time.


A Pepco employee watches the buring tree.  the tree was leaning against a power line.  While I was watching, there the fire flared up several times.


Monday, October 18, 2021

Fully Electric Ride-On buses are coming

 

I saw them testing out a new fully electric ride on bus this past weekend, they look a lot better than the current diesel buses (which I am not fond of).  This one wasn't in service, it was just driving on Sangamore Road.


Given that I saw the bus twice, once going in each direction, I think it was following the Ride On route 23, to see what real-world range is.


Friday, October 8, 2021

Demolition of the Auburn Professional Building continues

 I took a walk by the Auburn Professional Building this morning to see how the demolition is going. 

They were hard at work today demolishing the Auburn Professional building.  As the giant claw tore at the building and piled the metal away from other debris, a construction worker kept up a spray of water to keep dust down.  The Huntington Learning Center building (formerly Maryland Radio) is completely gone, the only trace that something was there is the concrete ramp leading to where the loading dock was.


The back of the Auburn Professioanl building. Demolition has started on the far side of it.  The Huntington Learning center building is already demolished, it used to block the view of the red brick building you can see in the distance.


From this angle you can't really tell the building is partway demolished, it looks like it is just undergoing renovation.  However, the far side fo the building is where the demolition is currently occurring.



Friday, October 1, 2021

Demolition of the Auburn Professional Building has begun


 The demolition of the Auburn Professional Building and Huntington Learning center building has begun. They started at the rear of the Huntington Learning Center building, you can see the back quarter of the building has been knocked down.

The front of the building has a fence close up to the wall of the  building.


The fencing continues down the block and goes around the Huntington Learning Center building.  Demolition has started in the back of this building.


Sunday, September 12, 2021

The portables are gone at Walt Whitman High School

 

Notice anything different?  For the past few years there have been portable classrooms in this section of the parking lot, since the new wing is open they are no longer needed and have been removed.

Here's how this part of the parking lot looked earlier this year with the portables still in place.


You can tell exactly where the portables were because the blacktop has square patches where the classrooms were anchored down.

The new sign is now (mostly) done, proudly proclaiming the name of the school.  The black rectangle should get an LED variable message sign at some point in the future.

Here's the new classroom wing. The building is ready but there is still work that needs to be done on landscaping, water retention, and paving. Even though the parking lot has been striped, it has not been paved to be even to the curp bottom, another layer of blacktop is still to be added.


I understand that they might not want water going into the water retention areas yet since they are not complete, but it seems like an overkill and more permenant than needed to brick the drainage cuts up.



Friday, September 3, 2021

High water at Great Falls

 Wednesday the remnants of Hurricane Ida came through the Bethesda area and left a lot of water. I have been tracking the forecasts for the Potomac River and it was projected to peak this morning.  I went to Great Falls today to take a look, here are some comparisons for how it looks today and how it looks in slightly more normal times.

Great Falls on the Potomac River as seen from the Olmsted Island overlook.  This photo was taken in July of 2020, the water is a little bit higher than normal for mid summer.

Great Falls on the Potomac River as seen from the Olmsted Island overlook.  This photo was taken this morning. Compare it to the photo above that was taken last year,  All the rocks seen in that photo are submerged, only a few small trees on them poke above the water on the left side of the photo.


From Olmsted Island overlook looking across the Potomac River to the Virginia side.  This photo was taken in April of 2021, the water in the spring is usually higher than in the summer. On the far shore you can see the Virginia overlooks, and in the middle of the picture you can see a large tree trunk wedged between the rocks well above the waterline.

This is a photo taken this morning from almost the same spot as the prior photo. You can see the overlooks on the far shore, and, you can see the same tree trunk wedged between the rocks (and partially obscured by tree leaves. This time the river is within a few feet of it.





Sunday, August 29, 2021

Little Falls branch after a storm

 

On Friday, a couple of hours after a storm, I went for a walk along Little Falls branch.  I was surprised how muddy the water was, lots of dirt gets washed into the stream.

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Building the road at Amalyn Bethesda (former WMAL site)

 

Construction continues on at the Amalyn Bethesda housing project (at the site of the former WMAL broadcast towers).  You can now clearly see the path of the road  that will connect Greyswood Road and Greentree Road. The road itself will be in the portion of dirt that is about 6 inches lower than the rest (on the left).  Greyswood Rd is just behind the construction equipment in the center of the photo.


One standing and one fallen concrete monoliths with construction equipment in the background.  As far as I can tell, they are not full of stars.  They are the footings for one of the radio transmitter towers that used to be located at this site, most of each of them was buried under the ground with only the top couple of feet exposed. 


 A number of pieces of construction equipment parked in the field near Greyswood Road. In the foreground is a large concrete monolith that was one of the footings for the now-removed radio transmitter towers.


Friday, July 23, 2021

Demolition of the former Ourisman car dealership


 The long-vacant Ourisman car dealersship on Motor City Drive up by the Home Depot and Montgomery Mall has finally been demolished.  The plan is to put apartments on this site.  The building is fully down and there are just a few bits of metal girders left


 Here is how it looked when I last took a picture of it in December of 2020.

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Cicada learners permit


 Cicadas may have just emerged, but they spent seventeen years underground. That means they are old enough to drive!  I took this one to get it's learners permit last week even though I doubt it will live the nine months required to get it's provisional license.

Friday, May 28, 2021

Clearing trees for the road at Amalyn Bethesda


 One of the first things that is being done for the Amalyn Bethesda housing development is to connect Greentree Rd and Greyswood Rd. They have started clearing trees at the end of Greentree Rd to allow for this work to start.

 Here is how Greentree road looks now. All the trees and brush has been removed.  


 This is from the field, looking at the dead-end of Greentree Road. Prior to this, the trees and brush were dense enough that you couldn't see Greentree from here.

 


 For comparison, here is how the end of Greentree Road looked earllier this spring.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Young Love (cicada style)


 "In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Now that the cicada's have been out a little while, and the racket they make has grown increasingly loud, it should come as no surprise that the singing is starting to pay off, at least for this lucky fellow and equally lucky lass.  They are especially lucky that no one stepped on them while they lay in ecstasy on the sidewalk.

After spending today listening to the cicadas, I was a bit surprised tonight to not hear them.