Another Step for the Completion of the CCT

Silver Spring Trails reports that the Montgomery County Master Plan Draft for the Purple Line will be presented to the Planning Board this Thursday.

He notes that the draft already provides that:

• The CCT will be rebuilt alongside the Purple Line to be continuous, at least 10′ wide, along the entire Georgetown Branch and WMATA/CSX corridor from Bethesda to downtown Silver Spring.
• The CCT will remain in the Bethesda tunnel on an overhead structure and will be at least 10′ wide there.
• The CCT will have bridges and underpasses to provide grade separated crossings of Connecticut Avenue, Jones Mill Road, 16th Street, Spring Street and Colesville Road.
• The CCT will have its own bridge over Rock Creek separate from the Purple Line, and the CCT will be connected directly to the Rock Creek Trail by a new ADA compliant trail access ramp.
• The CCT will connect directly to the Metropolitan Branch Trail on an overhead structure in the new Silver Spring Transit Center
• Access to the Trail will continue to exist at all of the formal trail access points that are at the Trail now.

Concept sketch looking east from behind the Riviera House in Bethesda -
the East-West Highway overpass can be seen in the background
(Source: Purple Line Functional Plan / Public Hearing Draft)

Comments

[Beaker]

Excellent, Data. Make it so.

[SJE]

Will this also apply DURING 3 years of construction

[silverspringtrails]

The Functional Plan does not address the construction period. But MTA acknowledges in public meetings that the interim CCT will be closed during construction. The closure period should not have to be for the entire 3 year period needed to build the whole project, but it will still be for a substantial part of that time.

I know any closure of any part of the interim CCT is unacceptable for some. But my neighbors and I have been waiting for the CCT to be built through our Silver Spring neighborhood for years, and we likely will never see the trail come to Silver Spring unless it is closed and rebuilt with the Purple Line. So from my perspective, it is fair to ask trail users in Chevy Chase neighborhoods do without the interim CCT for a while, so that we can have the trail in Silver Spring neighborhoods too.

That argument collapses if someone can come up with a way to finish the CCT on the master plan alignment without transit. But no one has presented a credible plan to do that, given the difficult right-of-way and cost issues in the WMATA/CSX corridor.

[Rick Blum]

The recently completed pedestrian underpass on Georgia Ave under the Beltway became a magnet of sorts for crime when it first opened a few years ago; planners addressed those issues quickly, and I haven't heard them come back, but the trail in the Bethesda tunnel or the bridge over Rock Creek could suffer the same fate if it allows people to surprise passersby without others down below or elsewhere seeing or knowing what's going on.

[SJE]

My concern is that the CCT path from its beginning to Bethesda is the only safe bike path in that direction. It is used by school children going to NCC Middle School, and BCC High School. It is used by commuters going all the way into town (including me).

Last time they closed the trail for repairs, the signage was poor, forced people onto busy roads (e.g. Jones Bridge/Jones Mill, East West Hwy) which are also very steep: too steep for children or people hauling kids.

If they are going to close the trail, I would like to see some SAFE alternative (which they should have anyway)

[SJE]

That is, beginning in Silver Spring.