Red Line closure impact

The Red Line has been closed for a little over a week now and will remain closed through September 6. (More information here.) I think there has been enough time to work out any kinks in the process and everything should be running smoothly, but is it?

I went to the North Bethesda (formerly White Flint) metro station this morning during rush hour to find out. As you might imagine, when a Read Line train comes in from the north, and everyone gets off, there are a lot of people.  To continue south most people cross under MD-355 using the tunnel, but some folks use the crosswalk.  With all those people showing up at once, there is a long line to board buses. 

Buses lining up

The good news is that there are a lot of buses ready to take them away.  It looks like they load three at a time (I think the fourth bus is the local bus that stops at every metro station along the way, not nearly as many people take that). As the buses fill up they move away, but new buses don't immediately pull up, I think they wait until all three are done loading.

A lot of buses

There are a lot of buses waiting, here is the other side of Old Geoorgetown Road at Pike and Rose, there is a line of buses in the right lane that goes to the next traffic light. I think there are 8 or 9 waiting, plus some waiting on the near side of the light, plus the ones loading.

 

Leaving the station

As people walk out of the station, there is someone directing them to the shuttle buses, and a lot of signs too.

The whole process seems to be going reasonably well. It shows how many people take the Red Line each day.  It does take longer, probably a lot longer. Not only do the express buses take time (about 26 minutes) to get from North Bethesda to Friendship Heights, you also have to get off the train, exit the station, cross the street, load onto the bus (which can take a while if it is busy), then reverse the process at the end. 

Northbound stop

Not many people were going north on the shuttles to rejoin the Red Line towards Shady Grove here. In fact, most of the shuttle buses that went by were out of service as the sped north to get back in line and go south.

Preparing for North Bethesda Market II

The long-planned North Bethesda Market II is starting to make progress. Originally proposed in 2010. Originally this was envisioned to have a very tall residential tower, a tall office tower, and a retail building it has been significantly scaled back.  Now the plan (submitted in 2023) calls for a single 7 story residential building with 280 units and a single story retail building with 7,500 square feet of retail use. Demolition of the old buildings has started.

Demolition near the gas station

The Exxon station on the corner of Rockville Pike and Nicholson Lane is not part of this project, it remains open.

Several buildings are being demolished to make way for a new development called North Bethesda Market II.  In the foreground there used to be a building, now there is just a concrete slab.  Behind that is 11426 Rockville Pike, in the process of being demolished. There used to be a Chili's Grill and Bar in this building.

5640 building front

This building hasn't been demolished yet, but all the business have left and the building is boarded up.  There used to be several restaurants here including Quincy's South Bar and Grille, of which only the sign remains.

5640 building back

This building hasn't been demolished yet, but soon will be.  It has the numerals 5640 on it, which seems to correspond to where it is on Nicholson Lane.  However, it faces Woodglen Drive and the restaurants that were in it had Woodglen Dr addresses.

 

 

 

 

Woodward High School is ready for students

 

Montgomery County Public Schools has been re-building Woodward High School for the past several years.  They demolished the old building in the Spring of 2021 and since then I have posted quite a lot about the construction progress. (See them all here.)

After all this time, the school is finally ready for students.  A couple of caveats apply though. First, the school isn't completely done, there are not yet athletic fields or a theater, or a couple of other things, and second, it isn't reopening as Woodward yet.  For the next few years Northwood High School will be based here while the rebuild that building.

Northwood will be here when the school year starts on Monday. Yes, it is just days away from a new school year.

 

Here's the school from the Southwest, there is a large parking lot, I think for bus drop-off, and, in the bottom right, the shadow of me taking the picture.

The school is set a ways back from the road and the sidewalk will also be moved back from the edge of the road a bit.

 

 

 

Tri Pointe Northpark townhome construction

Tri Pointe Northpark is a long strip of townhouses going in on Josiah Henson Parkway in North Bethesda. This is diagonally across from Pike and Rose. The first set of townhouses are going in. Tri pointe advertises that these will have four levels.

The first set of townhouses are going in. These townhouses are some of the few that abut Montrose Road.  There used to be a Sunoco gas station on this spot.

 These are the fronts of those same townhouses. They will face an interior street.

There is a lot of bare dirt and cleared ground, there will clearly be a lot more townhouses here when they are done.

 

 

 

Woodward High School update

Woodward High School from Old Georgetown Road

I last posted about the construction of the new Woodward High School in August. On the surface, it doesn't look like much has happened since then. There is a bit more cladding on some parts of the building, and one of the parking lots is beginning to take shape.  I'm sure a lot more has been going on inside.
 

Woodward is scheduled to have phase one complete by August of this year. At that time, Northwood High School is supposed to move in for 3 years. This is a year longer than originally planned and is due to budget restrictions.  That means that Charles W. Woodward won't open for students of its own until August of 2027.

 

South side of Woodward H.S.

The boundary study for the new Woodward H.S. was approved last March but there haven't been updates since then.

Here is the south side of the new school with a future parking lot prominently in the foreground.  The portion of the school facing Old Georgetown Road is to the left.

 

 

Bike parking at Grosvenor metro

 

There is a new chicken coop going in at the Grosvenor-Strathmore metro station. I think suburban farming is a great idea and look forward to being able to pick up a dozen fresh eggs on the way home from work.

Oh, maybe I got a few details wrong.  They are putting in a Bike & Ride facility that will securely house 100 bikes.  You'll be able to park your bike out of the rain and snow and have it locked up.  There are currently bike racks which have a roof over them on site, but this will be more secure and more attractive.

In the tone of urban planning, this is the bikeshed, the view of the area around the bike shed (the building that will contain the bikes).  Would it be bike shedding to ask what color it will be painted? (Ok, for you pedants out there, I know I am mis-defining this term multiple times, I find it amusing.)

This secure bike building includes a solid roof and wire mesh walls, as well as two doors.  It still looks like a chicken coop to me.

Strathmore Square construction

 

Strathmore Square is a new development being built on the grounds of the Grosvenor-Strathmore WMATA Metro station in North Bethesda, Maryland.  The vision is to have seven new buildings on just about every inch of open space except for a small "central park" area.

As seen from outside the parking garage

The first two buildings are under construction now and planned for a 2024 delivery.  Between them they will have 220 "luxurious" units.  According to their website, "this unique development offers marketing word, marketing word, marketing word".  Both buildings a visible in the above picture, the taller stack on the left is one of them and the longer (slightly shorter) stack on the right is the other.

Here's the second building seen from the edge of the property.

I really like that they do dense construction right next to the metro station.  The area is growing so you can either build where at least some of the trips will be non-car trips, or you can build where every trip is.  Even a housing moratorium just pushes development outside the area and people then drive right back in.  

This development will feed in to  Garrett Park Elementary School, Tilden Middle School, and Walter Johnson High School.

 

The buildings from the bus bays

I took this photo standing at the bus bays, looking across the kiss-and-ride towards the construction.