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Improvements for bikers and pedestrians near the National Naval Medical Center could begin in less than a year, as planners seek to help travelers not behind a steering wheel.
The improvements are located along three roads around the Navy Med campus in Bethesda and are being built by the county for around $5 million. While there are reportedly no construction conflicts between these projects and scheduled improvements at four intersections around Navy Med being planned by the State Highway Administration, county DOT Deputy Director Edgar Gonzalez said getting the projects started quickly is important.
"The more we delay, the more chances we're going to be conflicted with each other," Gonzalez said at the monthly meeting of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Implementation Committee on Dec. 15.
Both the intersection and bike and pedestrian path upgrades are being planned to accommodate the relocation of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to Navy Med, which will bring an estimated 2,500 new jobs to the area along with more visitors and patients through the BRAC process. The new facility, called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, is scheduled to open in September 2011.
As part of the project, the portion of Cedar Lane that runs over Rock Creek will be closed for about three months while a new bike lane is added, although the county's Department of Transportation said the bridge was scheduled to be closed for repairs before the expansion at Navy Med was announced.
If the county had chosen to keep the bridge open for one lane of traffic at a time during the upgrades, the project on the bridge could have taken about a year, according to Gonzalez. Communities near the bridge over Rock Creek have been notified of the bridge closing, he said.
The project with the earliest start date is a new bike path on the south side of West Cedar Lane between Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike. Although the official projected start date for construction is in March of 2011, with completion in June 2011, Gonzalez told committee members that if right of way negotiations with the National Institutes of Health (which has its campus on the south side of West Cedar Lane) are completed soon enough, construction on the path could begin in the fall of 2010.
On Cedar Lane south of Beach Drive, the county will re-stripe the road to create a new lane for bicyclists. The existing bike path that runs alongside Cedar Lane for a portion of the road will also be upgraded, so that the new bike lane and path will create a continuous route for cyclists.
A new hiker-biker trail will replace the existing path on the east side of Rockville Pike between Jones Bridge Road and Cedar Lane, next to the fence along Navy Med's campus. The conservative estimate is that construction on this new path will begin in July 2011 and finish in September 2011, although if agreements with the Navy are reached sooner, the project could start in August 2010 and end in September 2010.
Finally, the county plans to build a continuous bike path on the north side of Jones Bridge Road between Rockville Pike and Connecticut Avenue. Construction on this is scheduled to begin in May 2011 and finish in December 2011. But if agreements with Navy Med are worked out sooner, the project could start in March of that year and finish in August.
Public meeting
Before the next BRAC Implementation Committee meeting on Jan. 19, there will be a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. where county officials will give a presentation on the proposed pedestrian access tunnel between the Navy Med and NIH campuses. The meeting will be at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane. The public will be able to ask questions about the schedule, purpose, need, and process regarding the project, Gonzalez said.