Long-term roadwork on Eastbound Democracy at Fernwood

 

The work area west of Fernwood Rd

 Pepco is doing some emergency utility work on Westbound Democracy Boulevard at Fernwood Drive. This closes the right two lanes of Democracy Blvd, so only a single lane gets by.  This work could take as many as four months to complete, though the variable signs along the road say they will be done by mid-May.

  Pepco will work 7 days a week from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm but 24 hour work may be needed some of the time.  As you can see from the photos, they have put up jersey barriers in the construction area, so the lane closures are 24 hours a day, even if they aren't working.

Westbound on Democracy before Fernwood Rd

 The lane closure starts on the east side of the Fernwood Road, There is a length of road closed of by cones, before coming to a crash barrier and jersey wall protecting the workers.  They are doing work on both sides of the intersection.

 Pepco is working on restoring a fluid-filled underground transmission feeder that is part of their transmission network supporting distribution facilities throughout Montgomery County.

 

The solution to the housing crisis?

 Pepco has built a shed in the middle of the road to make it easier to complete the work.  Or, perhaps, the county is considering converting the two right lanes of all major streets into affordable housing.

Working on the east side

 A bit closer view of the work being done at Democracy Blvd and Fernwood Rd. And, yeah, still snow after all these weeks.

 

Update March 16: It looks like they got done much earlier than expected.  I drove by today and everything is cleaned up and all lanes are open. 

 

 

 

 

 

Bike lanes on Fernwood in the Rockspring/Rockledge area

Fernwood north of Democracy

Fernwood Road, near where the new "Grandview" senior living community is going in has been under construction for a while.  There was even a time where one direction was entirely closed.  This is between Democracy Blvd and Montgomery Mall. (Not sure what they call it now, maybe WestLakeField Montgomery ShoppingMallTown?)

 For a while it wasn't clear exactly what they were doing, but now you can clearly see that separated bike lanes are going in.  They were starting to pave them when I went by. (The red dump truck on the left was delivering blacktop.)  

Fernwood and Rock Spring Dr

 Here at the Rock Spring Drive intersection you can get a good look at the new bike lanes. To the left, behind the trees is where the Marriott headquarters was.  One of the new residential buildings can be seen peeking over the trees.

Fernwood and Rockledge

 They are working on what I think will be the main entrance to the Grandview on the left.  Going up the hill (which is the bridge over I-270) the bike lanes are fully in and paved.

The start

 This is facing the other direction on the bridge.  The separated bike lanes start here right behind the arrow sign.  It's a bit unclear how this spot will look when they are done.

Fernwood near Democracy / The other end

They aren't nearly as far along at the Democracy end of Fernwood.  They haven't even gotten the sidewalk replaced.  Since there are 3 lanes of traffic here (two left-only onto Democracy and one right-only onto Democracy. There is no straight to continue on Fernwood, even though just the other day I saw someone go straight here).

Out with the new

They clearly made a mistake at some point, because they were tearing up a newly laid section of curb.
 

 

New sound barrier on the outer loop

The new Amalyn housing development in Bethesda is between Interstate 495 and the Interstate 270 spur. This means it gets road noise.  A partial solution is to install a sound wall, and that is what is happening right now on the outer loop of I-495.  Construction on the wall started in June of 2024 and is getting close to being completed.
 

 If you drive along I-495 between Fernwood Road and Greentree Road, you have probably been noticing the construction as it progresses. In places the wall is very close to the road.

This is the current end of the sound wall, next to Greentree Road.

Here at the end of the barrier, it is set a couple of feet below ground level.  Most other parts of it are near the surface.

Here's the wall as seen from the other side of the interstate.  There is an access door in the wall.

They weren't actively working when I was there but the equipment is waiting for them to return.  Greentree Rd is on the right.

 

Fernwood Rd at Democracy Blvd intersection improvements completed

Those of you who regularly drive Fernwood Rd might be thinking "that intersection was finished months ago, why are you just posting it now?" Well, it isn't really done until the lane markings are there and there have only been temporary ones until recently. Now it is "done done" and we can celebrate.

Looking north on Fernwood, this is where the bulk of the changers are, instead of one right and one left turn lane there are two left turn lanes and one right turn lane.  For better or for worse, you still can't go straight through the intersection.

Nice bold turn arrows, and wide crosswalk stripes.

Finally there is a crosswalk to cross Democracy Blvd on the East side of Fernwood.  You used to have to cross Fernwood, then cross Democracy, then cross Fernwood again in order to walk north on Fernwood after Democracy.

The north side of the intersection, this is the crosswalk crossing Fernwood Road. Democracy Boulevard is on the left.

 

Crossing River Road near Whitman High School

 It seems like this crossing has been under construction for a long time without much progress being made recently.

This is the crosswalk that is being replaced, it is on the Westbound side of River Road (Maryland Route 190) in Bethesda. There is no intersection or signal at this location.

This crosswalk on the eastbound side of river road is not being replaced, however, you can see a traffic light is being added.

After crossing Eastbound River Road, but before crossing Westbound River Road, the sidewalk sweeps up towards the top of a hill.

The new crosswalk across Westbound River Road is near the top of the hill, giving pedestrians better visibility.  There will also be a streetlight and a traffic light here.

After crossing river road, you will be able to continue right towards Walt Whitman High School, or left towards the old crossing.

Improvements coming to the intersection of Fernwood Rd and Democracy Blvd

Later this year there will be major changes coming to the intersection of Fernwood Road and Democracy Boulevard in Bethesda, Maryland. This changes will be disruptive while they are occuring but will hopefully make the traffic exiting Fernwood onto Democracy flow more quickly.

The most noticable change will be here.  Instead of one left turn only lane there will be two left turn only lanes.  There will still be a single right turn only lane. This turn is a major slowdown during the evening rush hour and should allow many more cars to make the turn each light cycle.

 

 Even with the change, you still won't be able to go straight across Democracy Blvd to continue on Fernwood Rd.  This includes bikes, which currently have to do a time consuming crosswalk maneuver where they cross Fernwood, then cross Democracy, then cross Fernwood again. But this will also be made easier.

 

 Part of the improvements will be adding a crosswalk across Democracy Boulevard here.  This will make it easier for bikes and pedestrians to cross and it will make it faster for drivers turning left since the won't have to wait for people in the crosswalk as often.

 

 There will also be changes to the protected right turn slip lanes at the intersection. The concrete triangle will be made smaller and the radius of the turn will be reduced so it will be tighter at all four corners. I'm not exactly sure why this is being done, but I believe these high entry angle slip lanes are to reduce the risk of collision.

Repaving Woodmont Avenue

Today they were milling the pavement on Woodmont Avenue between Bethesda Avenue and Elm Street.  Southbound Woodmont Ave lanes were closed and traffic was redirected down one of the northbound lanes

 They were also milling the intersection onto Bethesda Avenue.  This caused significant traffic pattern changes, closing Bethesda Avenue at times.  This forced people wanting to go down Bethesda Ave to instead turn right on Woodmont and go around the block.

New traffic lights on River Road

  Yesterday I saw that state was busy installing new traffic signals on River Road and Pyle Rd, the site of an accident on February 27th that killed three family members.

The concrete bases for the signals are in, and it looks like the dug a trench on the Southbound median of River Road down from Wilson Ln.

Re-paving Bethesda Avenue

I was out walking through Bethesda this morning and saw that they are repaving Bethesda Avenue and the intersection with Norfolk Avenue.  You could turn left (east) onto Bethesda Avenue from Norfolk, but you couldn't turn right.  You also couldn't turn onto Bethesda Ave from Wisconsin Avenue.

Replacing the curb cuts yet again

 Here in Bethesda they have what seems like a yearly tradition.  Go to every intersection and dig up the curb cuts for the crosswalks and replace them.  It seems like they just got done with it earlier this year (though looking back at some pictures I think it may have been last year) and they have started it again.  Today they were out jack-hammering the brand new, handicap accessible crosswalk entrances.  Unbelievable, what could possibly be wrong with them, and why are they spending so much tax money doing this?

In the top photo, you can see they have finished digging up the one on the right, and have started jack-hammering the one on the left.  In the bottom photo they are using a concrete saw in preparation for the inevitable destruction.

This intersection is Old Georgetown Road and Edgemore Lane, right in the heart of Bethesda, MD.  I saw they had white arrows painted on the concrete to show where to dig, walking around at lunch I saw other intersections with white arrows so they are doing this to a bunch of them.

Old Georgetown Road resurfacing

It looks like they are finished the resurfacing project on Old Georgetown Rd in Bethesda, MD. There may still be barrels and signs, but the work itself is done. They didn't just resurface the road, they did work on the storm drains, bus stops, and corners too. Oddly, the resurfacing project ended just short of downtown so there is still a stretch of road in poor shape. The part they didn't do was probably the part that was in the worst shape.

Many of the bus stops got concrete pads for the bus to stop on. Concrete is stronger than asphalt and buses are heavy, this will hopefully make the road last longer.

The storm drains got concrete around them. I'm not positive the reason but I think it is because the drain/asphalt junction doesn't hold up well and the asphalt tends to crack in that area making it tough on bicyclists.

There are two different types of storm drains, the top one has a grate but no curb opening, the bottom one has both a grate and a curb opening. I didn't notice anything about the surroundings that would have them prefer one over the other.


Here's a storm drain that didn't get fixed, you can see patches, chunks of asphalt missing, cracked asphalt and grass growing in the cracks. Not too pretty and a bit dangerous for bikes.

The construction on Fernwood Road

They have been working on putting in new sidewalks on Fernwood Rd near Democracy Blvd in Bethesda, Maryland for about a week and a half now. The construction won't be done until the end of October so there is still a ways to go.

The good news is, if it hasn't impacted you yet, it probably wont. They have been doing a pretty good job of starting after rush hour and clearing up before the afternoon rush, although today they started a bit early.

When they are actively working they have had one lane closed and used flagmen to alternate traffic down the remaining lane. Since traffic isn't usually heavy during the day, that doesn't seem to be causing many delays. They have heavy equipment on the road both to dig up the existing asphalt sidewalk and to lay new concrete so I expect the lane closures to continue.

I first wrote about this project on the 21st.

One way on Elm Street

Elm Street, east of Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda, MD isn't a terribly busy road. I do, however, tend to notice when they start doing road work and close one lane, using flagmen to alternate traffic through the area. And, when they do that for multiple days, well, a post is in order.

Yesterday they had the grates off and were working in the pit. Today, the grates are on and it actually looks to me like they are about done. I don't know when they started this project.