Tuesday, February 19, 2013

2-15-13 WRC / NBC4 TV: Changes Coming to Ease Rockville Pike Traffic Pain

As the saying goes: no pain, no gain.

And along Rockville Pike, the ride can be plenty painful.

"It's bumper to bumper from the Beltway, past this area," said driver Larry Goldkind, "and a lot of it relates to traffic coming in here."

The "here" he's talking about is the National Military Medical Center. Thousands more personnel, patients and employees are using the facility because of a recent base realignment. That means traffic in the area is heavier -- but new transportation improvements are on the way.

"We are not going to get rid of traffic... I am not going to promise that," said Phil Alperson, Montgomery County's base realignment coordinator.

But a plan is in the works -- Alperson said that intersections are being improved to keep traffic moving. Additoinally, Metro just gave the go-ahead to add onto the Medical Center station. Those plans include a bank of high-speed elevators and a pedestrian tunnel that will be dug under Rockville Pike.

"This project will address a traffic situation right in front of the Navy's main gate," Alperson said.

Those who have to cross busy Rockville Pike on foot are happy to hear that they may soon be able to go under instead of over.

"You never know if people aren't paying attention," said pedestrian Lindsey Jones. "So [crossing is] always a little nerve wracking."

And there's even more construction planned for the pike.

Not far away from the medical center, a huge 17-story apartment building is coming near Wisconsin and Chase Avenues. Project leaders are hoping the residents use the nearby Metro stations rather than adding to the congestion with their own vehicles.

Crews are expected to break ground on these projects in about a year.

CATEGORIES: BRAC , Construction , Traffic
POSTED: 2:39:00 PM |

Monday, December 03, 2012

11-30-12 Gazette.Net: BRAC drives job gains in Maryland -- Fort Meade, other bases fuel public and private growth

BRAC drives job gains in Maryland by Kevin James Shay Staff writer

Call it the BRAC factor paying off.

Several Maryland military bases have made substantial job gains in the past year, according to a new state list. Officials say they are pleased with how the Pentagon’s base realignment and closure program has progressed in the past seven years, although the number of private-sector job gains has fallen thousands short of what was projected.

“We’ve met our BRAC deadlines,” said retired Marine Brig. Gen. J. Michael Hayes, program director of the Office of Military and Federal Affairs at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. “The construction around the bases has mostly been done ahead of schedule.”

A list of major employers — excluding state and local government agencies — compiled recently by DBED shows Fort Meade in Central Maryland with the most employees in the state by far with 56,700, more than 12,000 more than a year ago. That figure could include embedded contractors, as a firm job figure for the Anne Arundel County base is hard to obtain, Hayes said.

“It will always be an estimate. The reporting is not pure,” he said.

The changes in job figures also could stem from differences in methodology on how employers count workers from year to year, DBED officials say.

In 2005, federal officials approved the BRAC plan and projected about 27,000 direct job gains to Maryland by late 2011 from the BRAC process, with 12,000 at Fort Meade alone. As many as 30,000 other contracting and support jobs were forecast.

The direct jobs projections are close at Aberdeen Proving Ground, according to Harford County figures. Aberdeen, where weapons are tested, was expected to gain about 8,800 direct jobs through such additions as the Army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operation that moved from Fort Monmouth, N.J.

Aberdeen’s BRAC-related job increase has been closer to 8,500, only about 300 less than projected, according to Harford County figures. But the private contracting and support positions have reached only 6,000 there, short of the 7,500 to 10,000 projected there, Hayes said.

The Great Recession was a key factor behind the lower-than-projected private contractor figures, he said.

“It’s not the way we originally modeled it, but it’s still a good story,” Hayes said.

Baltimore developer St. John Properties is overseeing the Government and Technology Enterprise office and technology park at Aberdeen and has more than 600,000 square feet leased out there. Among the tenants are Falls Church, Va., information technology contractor Computer Sciences Corp., Chicago aerospace giant Boeing and McLean, Va., military contractor Science Applications International Corp.

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development operates a website with resources for those moving to the state due to BRAC changes at mdhousing.org/Website/BRAC. There have been far more commuters involved with the moves at Fort Meade than those at Aberdeen, Hayes said.

Fort Meade job projections not yet met

At Fort Meade, which is welcoming the headquarters of the Defense Information Systems Agency from Northern Virginia, the direct job growth is about 6,000, according to Anne Arundel County figures. That direct growth is about half of what was originally projected, but officials expect agencies to add more jobs in coming years.

More than two dozen new military contractors have established offices at the Odenton base, and many more expanded. More than 1.4 million square feet of office space and laboratories has been built at Fort Meade, with some 5.4 million more square feet of office space in the works, according to the county.

In addition, the National Security Agency is expanding in that area, with the first 1.8 million-square-foot phase that will add a total of 6,500 employees expected to be completed by 2015.

The Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility in Camp Springs, which was projected for 3,000 direct job gains, added more than 5,000 employees in the past year, though some of those are likely embedded contractors, according to DBED.

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, projected to add 2,400 jobs, added about 700 more in the past year, to go with a 2,900-job gain the previous year, according to DBED.

Other significant job gains by employers in Maryland in the past year include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has its headquarters in Silver Spring, up 2,720; Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System in Baltimore, up 1,520; and MedStar Health in Columbia, up 920.

Among the employers that saw jobs decline in the state were the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, down 1,140; Bethesda military and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, down 1,000; and Arlington, Va., military and aerospace giant Northrop Grumman, which has several locations in Maryland, down 720

CATEGORIES: BRAC
POSTED: 11:00:00 AM |

Friday, February 17, 2012

Roadwork planned near Medical Center in Bethesda/North Chevy Chase in connection with BRAC

Beginning in a few weeks, segments of Rockville Pike and Connecticut Avenue just inside the Capital Beltway in Bethesda and North Chevy Chase will see construction work begin.  This work will be underway for perhaps up to three years.  The projects — mostly adding turn lanes and short segments of lanes to move traffic through intersections more quickly — will help the area accommodate new traffic from the recently expanded Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, under the federal Base Realignment and Closure program (BRAC).  The hospital added 2,500 employees, and patient visits are projected to jump from 500,000 to 1 million annually.

Construction is expected to begin on Rockville Pike early in March, 2012, and at Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road in late March.

The area encompasses major commuter routes into the District, downtown Bethesda, the National Institutes of Health and Walter Reed. Other roads that will be affected — Cedar Lane and Jones Bridge Road — serve Kensington and Silver Spring.  With about 70,000 vehicles already using Connecticut Avenue and Rockville Pike daily, State and County officials are warning motorists to expect delays.  All lanes will remain open in the peak direction during the morning and afternoon rush, officials said.

As the roadwork is underway, County officials will begin a major two-year tunneling project beneath Rockville Pike starting in fall 2013.  That will include excavating a 120-foot deep shaft for a new set of high-speed elevators on the east side of Rockville Pike near the military hospital entrance and a 20-foot-deep pedestrian tunnel.  Both projects are designed to allow people to walk between the hospital campus, the Medical Center Metrorail station and nearby bus stops without having to cross busy Rockville Pike.  The number of pedestrian crossings there was projected to jump from 3,000 to 7,000 daily after Walter Reed’s expansion.

Rockville Pike will probably see orange barrels first, when crews begin moving underground utility lines between the Beltway and Jones Bridge Road in a few weeks.  That utility work will take about a year, State officials said, and will be followed by another two years of construction to add lanes at the intersections with Cedar Lane and Jones Bridge Road.  Later this year, workers will carve out a longer queue area for southbound Rockville Pike traffic waiting to turn left onto eastbound Jones Bridge.  They also will add signs at that intersection to make one of Rockville Pike’s southbound through lanes a second left-turn-only lane during the afternoon rush.

At Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road, State Highway Administration workers will add a right-turn-only lane on southbound Connecticut to carry traffic that exits the Beltway to head west on Jones Bridge while heading to NIH, Walter Reed and downtown Bethesda.  Part of the Connecticut Avenue median will be carved out to create an additional northbound through lane between Manor Road and the Beltway.  The plan also includes construction of a third left-turn lane from eastbound Jones Bridge to northbound Connecticut, State officials said, but no schedule for that has been set.

For more information on the Base Realignment and Closure program in Montgomery County along with construction updates and commuter tips, visit the County's BRAC website.

(Source: Katherine Shaver, The Washington Post, February 8, 2012.) 

CATEGORIES: News , Traffic , BRAC , Construction
POSTED: 11:13:00 AM |

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Two Parking Lots and One Block of Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda to Close Mid-January for 20 Months

For Immediate Release: 11/10/2011 Two Parking Lots in Bethesda to Close Mid-January For Construction of New Parking Garage that will Triple Number of Parking Spaces; Nearby Parking Alternatives Available

Beginning in mid-January, two surface parking lots in Bethesda (known as Lots 31 and 31A), located at the intersection of Woodmont and Bethesda avenues, will close for about 30 months for the construction of a public-private partnership project that will more than triple the number of public parking spaces available on the site.

One to two months after the project begins, Woodmont Avenue between Bethesda Avenue and Leland Street will also close for about 20 months. The adjacent Capital Crescent Trail will remain open during the entire construction project. Lots 31 and 31A have 279 spaces and are popular with short- and long-term parkers who frequent nearby shops, restaurants and movies, or use the Capital Crescent Trail.

To assist parkers, the County is enhancing other parking options in the area during construction. At the Bethesda-Elm Parking Garage (Garage 57), which has more than 900 parking spaces and is located between Bethesda Avenue and Elm Street, staff will convert 103 long-term spaces to four-hour spaces.

In addition, a new messaging system at the garage’s entrance will show drivers how many parking spaces are available. Drivers who need to park for longer periods of time will be encouraged to use other garages in Bethesda. Long-term parking spaces are available at the Woodmont Corner Garage (Garage 11), at Woodmont and Old Georgetown Road, and the Auburn-Del Ray Garage (Garage 36), as well as at privately operated parking facilities surrounding Lot 31. Long-term parkers can also use the free Bethesda Circulator shuttle bus. Starting in December, and throughout the construction period, the Circulator schedule will expand, and the frequency of service will increase. Additional information on Circulator service is available at www.bethesda.org/lot31.

On Lots 31 and 31A, developers StonebrideCarras of Bethesda and PN Hoffman from Washington, D.C. will construct two residential buildings with 250 units and retail space at ground level. The buildings will include an underground parking garage with 290 private parking spaces for tenants and 940 public spaces. The project should be completed in Summer 2013. For more information on parking in Montgomery County’s public lots and garages, go to www.montgomerycountymd.gov/parking.

# # # Release ID: 11-340 Media Contact: Esther Bowring 240-777-6507

CATEGORIES: News , Transportation , Parking
POSTED: 12:26:00 PM |

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Leggett Praises $90 Million Federal Funding for Transit, Road & Pedestrian Improvements in Bethesda

Projects will address increased traffic related to BRAC at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett announced the approval of nearly $90 million dollars worth of transportation projects to address traffic congestion in Bethesda. The funds were awarded by the Office of Economic Adjustment, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

“I am thrilled that many years of persistence and coordination between my office, the County and State departments of Transportation, and our Congressional delegation have brought us to this day,” said Leggett. “These funds will enable us to construct and complete six separate projects that will reduce gridlock, improve vehicular mobility, and promote pedestrian safety in Bethesda around the newly-designated Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and NIH.

Read Full Press Release

CATEGORIES: Funding
POSTED: 1:44:00 PM |