SILVER SPRING, MD – As part of the National Naval Medical Center expansion, the county Planning Board is reviewing a number of transportation studies and projects intended to alleviate the impact of the medical center’s growth in the Bethesda-area community.
On Thursday, the Planning Board will review four of those projects – intersections along Rockville Pike (MD 355), Connecticut Avenue (MD 185) and Old Georgetown Road (MD 187) – as mandatory referrals, which provide the Board an opportunity to make recommendations to the appropriate agency for consideration.
The Medical Center expansion, occurring as part of the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, will require improvements to area intersections, trails, and pedestrian access points. For each transportation project, planners have reviewed the extent of planned improvements – from new turn lanes to sidewalk reconstruction to building hiker/biker paths – and recommended changes to improve function and access. Learn more.
Many of the recommendations concern ways to improve conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists. For example, planners recommend better pedestrian access to National Naval Medical Center and National Institutes of Health campuses, improved handicapped ramp design, wider crosswalks, and shade trees along sidewalks, as well as completion of the southern end of the North Bethesda Trail.
Other recommendations concern landscape improvements so that the roadways are more compatible with the federal campuses and adjacent communities.
The web page features the proposals put forward by the county and state Departments of Transportation along with the planner-recommended changes for Planning Board review. The web pages includes drawings of current and proposed intersections, as well as aerial maps that put each project into context.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
National Naval Medical Center projects
WHEN:
Thursday, July 22, 2010, approximately 1 p.m.
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters
8787 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD