Bethesda metro station has re-opened

 

The two-month long shutdown of the Red line between Friendship Heights and North Bethesda is now complete.  Today trains resumed running through the formerly closed stations.  One of the big accomplishments was building a mezzanine at the southern end of the Bethesda metro station. This will connect to the Purple Line station.

The new entrance is not complete, but metro claims the rest of the work can be done without impacting trains.  Here is the southern end of the Bethesda metro station platform.  The center part of it is blocked off for mezzanine construction.
 

The mezzanine is there, but there is still work to be done. The supports are in and covered with fire retardant insulation.

 Standing under the new mezzanine looking towards the current entrance.

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.

Bethesda Metro Station closed though September 6

 

From July 6 through September 6, the Red Line is closed between North Bethesda and Friendship Heights. That means Grosvenor-Strathmore, Medical Center, and Bethesda stations are closed. This is so that some track work can be done and so that the a mezzanine at the new south entrance to Bethesda Station can be built.

 Here in Bethesda, the escalators at the bus bays down to the station are blocked off and there are many signs directing you.  There was also a friendly person who gave me a flyer and told me where everything was.

Temporary shuttle stop

There are express buses that run from North Bethesda directly to Friendship Heights and local buses that stop at all the stations.  The shuttle stop southbound (pictured) is at Wisconsin Avenue and Montgomery Lane, where the metro elevator is located and near the old post office building. The northbound stop is at Wisconsin Avenue and East-West Highway, directly across from the station entrance and next to the building with a tunnel to the metro in it. 

Northbound shuttle stop

Here's a Red Line shuttle metrobus stopped at the temporary shuttle stop across from the metro station.  The two people on the left are there to help you find your way.  Not many people got on this bus but a number of people got off, this was on Sunday morning (today)

This was also this morning. The two yellow buses are express shuttles, the sign above the window would alternate between "Red Line" and "Express". on the left you can see a Metrobus that is being used as the Red Line Local shuttle.  This is Southbound on Wisconsin Avenue at Old Georgetown Road.

I took this photo on Friday before 9 am.  This is the temporary bus lane that runs southbound on Wisconsin Avenue.  The bus lane is only active Monday-Saturday, on Sundays anyone can use it. 

 

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

New electric car chargers coming in Bethesda

I noticed that the public county garage on Woodmont Ave and Edgemoor Lane is getting some level 2 Chargepoint chargers.  This is officially Garage 49, the Metropolitan Garage, it is the one close to Bethesda Metro Station. Level G1 four dual-port chargers. (Oddly, it looks like there are two spaces in the middle that aren't getting chargers.) There is also a dual-port L2 charger being installed at the handicap space near the Woodmont entrance.

 

Capital Crescent Trail, after the snow

 

I took a walk on the Capital Crescent Trail between River Road and Downtown Bethesda today.  The trail is clear to bare pavement the whole way there.  There were a lot of people out walking and a few people running or biking on the trail.  The county has done a very good job clearing it this storm. 

Capital Crescent Trail at Little Falls Parkway

 

 

Bikeshare Bike

This bikeshare station along River Road at the Capital Crescent trail has been visited by the bike angels post-snow storm.  There were two red bikesare bikes and one electric bike at the station and the wheels were on top of the snow (and you could see tire tracks on top of the snow) so they were clearly added post-storm.

River Road in the snow

The road itself is clear, but the bike lanes and sidewalks are not.  People have to walk along the partially cleared lane, or, like the guy at the top, run down the suicide lane in the middle.

Breakdown

Two people were putting gas in this bobcat in the suicide lane on River Road.  Not sure if that was the only problem or if other issues were also there.  Notice that the right lane in both directions is full of snow and not passable.

 

I saw someone on a side trail skiing.

 

 

 

 

Snow in Bethesda

Yesterday we got about 7 inches of snow and sleet in Bethesda, Maryland.  I walked around downtown Bethesda this afternoon (roughly 3pm-4pm) to see how the city is recovering.  Overall, the main roads are in decent shape.  Often at least one of the lanes isn't fully plowed, but there aren't many cars out right now so that isn't a real issue. It may be in the coming days as people go back to work though. A lot of the sidewalks are clear in the downtown area, but not all of them are, especially problematic are along Old Georgetown Road and along Wisconsin Avenue, as well as at intersections where snow has been piled up by plows.

Some snow on Old Georgetown

Old Georgetown Road had at least two lanes clear, but in some places there was still a little bit of loose snow on the road. 

More snow on Old Georgetown

Snow on Wisconsin

 

Walking in the road

The blocked sidewalks and high snow at intersections is forcing these folks to walk in the road on Wisconsin Avenue.  This is dangerous for everyone involved.

Capital Crescent Trail: plowed to the asphalt

Bike Lane

The separated bike lane on Woodmont Avenue had been cleared at some point, but is now covered with snow again.

 

Snowy sidewalk on St. Elmo

Uncleared sidewalk on Woodmont

Not all neighborhood streets are plowed

 

Clearing Bethesda Lane

 

All that snow has to go somewhere, in places it is piled quite high

No Broccoli

 Fresh vegetables were in short supply at Lidl this afternoon.  There was no fresh broccoli in the store.  There was, however, frozen broccoli, whic is just as good for you so I got that instead.

 

 

Bethesda Metro Station construction

 Bethesda Metro Station is getting a new south entrance and connection to the future Purple Line light rail.  Work has been going on inside the station for a while.  On Wednesday I took photos of the status.

 At the far (southern) end of the station a wall panel is removed and you can see the real walls behind it.  The area is open behind the red plywood.  When the station was built they envisioned a future south entrance so left a knock-out panel for it. 

 To give you a sense of scale, at the very center of the plywood is a full-sized door, so I think the opening is 12 feet tall.  It seems a bit close to the tracks for a bridge over the tracks but I guess not. 

False Walls

I never knew the curved concrete walls of the station were removable panels and the real station walls weren't curved.  Here you can see the gap between the real wall and the apparent wall.

The new entrance will be located on Elm Street near Wisconsin Avenue and  will only have elevators, no escalator to the metro station.  A mezzanine will be built over the south end of the platform to allow access to the trains.

 

Fossil extension cord

I can't be 100 percent sure, but it really looks like when they poured the original concrete station walls they left an extension cord there and it left this serpentine outline.

 

Station in July 2025

 Here's how the station looked last July, the concrete panel that has since been removed was still up on the right side of the picture and they were still building the work areas on the platform. 

 

More information:

•  WRA page about their work
•  Montgomery Planning page about the entrance
•  Bethesda Today article about escalating costs

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.