Paving on Bethesda's Woodmont Avenue

They have been doing on-again off-again road work on Woodmont Ave next to Veteran's Park in Bethesda, MD for a while, a couple of months ago they were digging it up to install an underground pipe across it. It looks like they are finished for good because today they were re-paving that area. They had closed one side of the street and had some cones set up so there was one lane in each direction available. Traffic is light enough at this time of day that it wasn't causing much of a backup, though not quite everyone got through the light cycle every time. Around 1:15 they had finished the verterans park side and were taking a break. Since the other side of the road was already ground down, I bet the tackle that this afternoon.


Update 9:30pm: I checked this evening and they did finish paving both sides of the road.

Unattended Playground Children

There is an inherent problem with putting everything in all caps and not having punctuation. I had to read this sign more than once to figure out what it really meant. I mean, if the "UNATTENDED PLAYGROUND CHILDREN" are "ACCOMPANIED BY PARENT" then they aren't really unattended are they? If, on the other hand, they had put a period after the word playground and done some decent capitalization, and maybe a bit better grammar then I would have read "Unattended Playground. Children must be accompanied by a parent." Much better isn't it.

Now, moving on to the second sign, according to it, children only have to be accompanied by an adult, it doesn't have to be a parent. Of course anyone over 18 is free to play on it without a child (which is refreshing, I've seen more and more places requiring you bring a child to kid-focused activities.) Still ALL CAPS but at least it has punctuation.

But still, something isn't quite right. Hmm, let me think. Oh yes. There isn't a playground anywhere around this sign. I assume at some point in the past there was, but now it is the patio seating for the Daily Grill at the Bethesda Hyatt. At least they did a good job attaching the sign.

In case it is hard to read the second sign, it says "Attention. This play area and equipment are unattended and are for the sole use of registered guests of the hotel. No person under the age of 18 is permitted access without being accompanied by an adult. All persons using this equipment do so at their own risk. Thank you, The management."

[where: Bethesda, MD]

Red Line train wreck, morning update

Photo by twitpic user davidcorndc.

There is still a significant impact from yesterday's accident on metro's Red Line. The red line between Brookland-CUA and Silver Spring is still closed and will remain so for at least the morning rush hour but probably for the whole day. There will be no service at the Takoma or Ft. Totten stations. (The metro website says that Brookand will not have service, but a more recent message on twitter says that it will be open.) release There will be no MARC Brunswick line service today. Shuttle buses will operate between Silver Spring and Rhode Island Avenue stations, but that will not be able to handle a normal rush hour volume.

Your alternatives are fairly limited. They do have bus service but a bus holds about 50 people and a single metro car holds 100+ so it will be a slow trip. You may be able to find a regularly scheduled metro bus line that goes near you want to go, check out the metro link at the bottom of this post. Some roads near the accident are closed.

It appears that one train was stopped waiting for permission to pull into a station when another train ran into the back of it just after 5 pm yesterday. Computers are supposed to act as a fail-safe and prevent trains from getting too close to each other but that didn't work.

Seven people are confirmed dead and more than 70 people were transported to area hospitals. This is only the second crash in Metro's history where passengers were killed. The other one was January 13, 1982 when three people died, the same time as the Air Florida flight 90 disaster

Update 8:35 AM: The death toll was revised down from Nine to Seven.

Sources:

• Metro
• Twitter
• WTOP
• ABC 7
  

Another Red Line derailment, 2 dead

At least two people has died and several people are trapped and injured after a Metro Red Line train derailed and collided with another Metro train, officials say.

The six-car train derailed and then collided with another train between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations around 5 p.m. Monday.

Naturally, the metrorail red line alerts e-mail are euphemistic to the point of being a lie. "Trains are turning back at Rhode Island Ave and Silver Spring stations due to a train experiencing mechanical difficulties outside of Fort Totten station." A train derailing then another train hitting it is a bit more than "Mechanical difficulties".

Sources:

• WTOP
• Washington Post
• Metro Twitter feed
• Twitter #redline
  

Update 6:40pm, added a couple of screen grabs from channel seven. Channel 7 also reports that there are 3 people still on the train, no word on if they are dead, injured, or just trapped.

A "New" blog about Bethesda

For the past couple of months I've been reading The-Thes, which bills itself as "A New Blog about Bethesda" They've been posting for about 3 months now so I don't know how much longer they can justify that tagline. Anyway, usually they have a post or two a day, lots of them are about upcoming events and there is surprisingly little overlap between it and my blog. I sometimes check their blog more than I check my own. (I have to check my own blog to see if I have done any somnambul writing, which I was disappointed to learn that I don't).

It is great to have another Bethesda focused blog around. I admit I am a little jealous of Silver Spring.

Free mulch

For all you Montgomery County, MD residents you can get some free mulch at the Solid Waste Transfer Station in Shady Grove, or the location in Poolesville and Silver Spring, MD.

All the brush and tree branches that you put out for pickup gets ground up and you can take it free. I've gotten some a couple of times and it is pretty good for some uses. Generally the quality is pretty good but sometimes you see bits of the brown paper bags people use in it and the size of the chips is varied. I wouldn't use it for places where lots of people will see it but if you need a lot of mulch it can be good. Take as much as you want (there are huge piles of it) but you have to bring your own tools and bags to put it in.

According to the county, it is best for:

• use on woody plants such as bushes, shrubs, and trees
• use as a cover material on walkways or other areas where you want to control vegetation.
• a carbon-rich addition to home compost piles

They also have some warnings: Free mulch is "green" mulch and must be aged for at least 6-8 months before it can be used for your flowers, vegetables, or other plants with tender or shallow root systems. It can contain allergens, termites, carpenter ants, etc.

Bethesda Community Store to expand

This tiny gray store at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Greentree Road in Bethesda, MD has been around forever (Actually "only" since 1924). For some reason, when I was a kid it was called "Browns" although I never knew why (was the owner named Brown?) Even back then it was called Bethesda Community Store and was painted gray.

For some time, the current owner, Arnie Fainman, has been trying to expand. Earlier this year the Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that the store should "be preserved and that its economic viability be protected to enable to continue in operation as a ‘store.'" This opens the path for him to expand. Any plans still have to be approved by Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission and in the past expansion has been opposed by the Huntington Terrace Citizens Association saying it represents an unwanted commercialization of the area. They haven't decided if they will continue to oppose the expansion.

Fainman wants to allow the Salt River Lobster company to continue to sell seafood on the store's property, and to be able to turn the storage shed into a permanent building expansion.

There is a whole lot more information at the Gazette.

Woman killed by a train at Bethesda metro station

Yesterday a woman was killed by a metro train at the Bethesda Metro station around 1pm. The station was closed for about 20 minutes and there were single tracked for some time after that. Everything is now cleared up. It appears that the woman intentionally got on the tracks.

Sources:

• Washington Post
• WTOP

Accident, Northbound Wisconsin Ave at Montgomery Ave, Bethesda, MD

There was an accident today at the corner of Wisconsin Ave (MD-355) and Montgomery Avenue, a cab and a car collided, the cab ran up on the sidewalk and hit a building. It also knocked over a fire hydrant. fire hydrants don't shoot up geysers of water when you knock them over like they do in the movies. For a short time two right lanes of northbound MD-355 were blocked and two lanes of Montgomery Avenue were blocked. Everything is pretty much cleaned up now, I just saw the towtruck that came to get the cab.


[where: Bethesda, MD]

Elm Street Park Update

It looks like the construction at the Elm Street Park on the edge of Bethesda and Chevy Chase, MD is nearing completion. I first posted about this almost three months ago, at the time, I didn't know what they were doing, but I found a gazette article with more information.

Improvements include re-paving the walkways, adding a new southeast to northwest walkway, new benches and picnic tables, new trashcans and recycling bins and some new lighting. They are planning to be finished in July. The upgrades are being paid for by the Donohoe Development Company as part of the construction of the hotel in the Air Rights complex.


All but one of the walkways is paved, the last one looks like they need a bit more work before they are ready to pave.

They have started the landscaping, some of the trees and shrubs are already in the ground and they were actively planting when I was there. The new benches and tables still need to be installed, but sometime in July seems like a reasonable completion estimate.

[where: 4600 Elm St, Bethesda, MD]