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Fixes for a congested Bethesda intersection will not be finished until at least a year after the expansion at the National Naval Medical Center.

The intersection of Rockville Pike and Cedar Lane, called by state planners the most difficult and important intersection to fix around Navy Med, is slated to get $75 million worth of improvements, including new and exclusive turn lanes and wider roads, according to a State Highway Administration presentation.

But the first phase of those improvements, including new southbound and northbound lanes south of the intersection and new "storage" lanes for vehicles turning into Navy Med and the National Institutes of Health, will not be completed until fall 2012. Only $25 million of state funding has been identified for the SHA-backed project. Construction would begin in June 2011.

The new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is set to open at Navy Med in September 2011 through the Base Realignment and Closure process, bringing with it about 2,600 new jobs to the area, along with heightened concerns about traffic congestion and mobility.

"I can't afford to stop right now," said Barb Solberg, SHA engineer and the project manager, at the Nov. 17 meeting of the county's Base Realignment and Closure Implementation Committee. "We're already late."

On average, a person traveling on Rockville Pike between Jones Bridge Road and Cedar Lane could save a minute and 41 seconds in the morning peak period and two minutes and 48 seconds in the evening peak over current drive times if all proposed improvements are built, according to the SHA.

A person driving on Jones Bridge Road between Rockville Pike and Connecticut Avenue could save on average one minute and 30 seconds in the morning peak and one minute and 41 seconds in the evening peak.

Drivers going in the most-traveled directions during rush hour could see as much as double the average delay reduction, according to SHA analyst Matt Snare, since the improvements are directed at their needs.

But a representative for NIH said that while NIH believes improvements are needed, it has not agreed to cede the land necessary to widen the two roads. Solberg said the late start date for Rockville Pike work has to do with environmental, not construction issues.

"What we're trying to do is get those things resolved now," said Ron Wilson, director of NIH's Division of Facilities Planning, adding that NIH had an "obligation" to protect its land where appropriate.

A new southbound lane on Connecticut Avenue between Interstate 495 and Jones Bridge Road, and a northbound lane between Manor Road and Jones Bridge Road, and a widening of Jones Bridge Road east and west of its intersection with Connecticut Avenue have also been proposed. Previous proposals to eliminate five homes along Connecticut Avenue for a wider road and the creation of a "reversible lane" are no longer being considered. Construction would begin in November 2010 and finish in fall 2011.

The intersection of Rockville Pike and Jones Bridge Road would first be signalized so that the existing left-most through lane on the Pike southbound would be converted into a left-turn lane onto Jones Bridge Road in the evening peak. In the second phase, Rockville Pike would get a permanent second left-turn lane.

A new northbound lane ending in a right-turn lane onto West Cedar Lane would be added to Old Georgetown Road, and a new and exclusive right-hand turn lane would be added on West Cedar Lane westbound at Old Georgetown Road under SHA proposals, at a cost of $7 million.

All projects, including a $40 million pedestrian and vehicle underpass between Navy Med and the Medical Center Metro station, would have a price tag of $157 million. Only $35 million has a current funding source attached to it, including the $25 million in state dollars for Rockville Pike and Cedar Lane.

"The rest of the money is on Santa's wish list," said Ken Strickland, a representative of the Chevy Chase Valley neighborhood west of Connecticut Avenue, who also blasted the proposed improvements on that road for adding more and faster-moving cars to the area that could endanger local residents.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," said Ilaya Hopkins, representing the East Bethesda Citizens Association, after the SHA presentation.