Pearl Street Connection to CCT

I briefly mentioned the improved Pearl Street Connection to the CCT before here, but there's an older article in the Gazette with even more information on it.

The county is currently in negotiations to purchase an access easement on approximately 1,100 square feet of property from ProMark Real Estate Services so the improvements can go forward.

The improvements, which were agreed to on March 23, 2007 in a resolution issued by the Montgomery County Planning Board, include constructing a bike ramp, pedestrian ramp and guardrails and stabilizing the slope at the trail's access point with the southern terminus of Pearl Street, east of Wisconsin Avenue and south of Montgomery Avenue.

In addition to formalizing trail access at Pearl Street, other improvements would prevent the flooding problems that take place at that point on the trail a few times a year. The current access point consists of a dirt track descending from Pearl Street to the trail, with several wooden boards placed over a small stream on the north side of the trail.

"It washes out the trail a couple of times a year," said Chuck Kines, a bikeway planner with the Planning Department. He said the Department of Transportation is responsible for cleaning up the flooding on the trail, and that the situation is a "long-standing" problem.

While the county is acquiring the access easement, Donohoe Development Company, the developer of the future Hilton Garden Inn at the Air Rights Center, has agreed to pay for the construction and design of the improved Pearl Street access point, said Donohoe representative Steve Van Dorpe.

Peter Gray, chairman of the Coalition of the Capital Crescent Trail, said the group has not received any complaints specific to the Pearl Street access point, but that another formal access point to the trail could only be a benefit.

"The condition of the trail east of the tunnel (under Wisconsin Avenue and the Air Rights Center) is really crummy," Gray said.

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A better Pearl Street connection could help with cyclists heading to the BRAC expanded National Naval Medical Center.

Comments

[Beaker]

If one wishes to head east on CCT/Georgetown Branch, a better access point to CCT is via Kentbury Ave. You have to go through some neighborhood streets to get there, and access is sort of hidden between houses--but it is better than the horrible Pearl St. access you describe. From the trail, the access is just west of the country club.

[Pam Browning]

Better make sure that MTA is planning access to the Trail and the Tunnel from Elm Street Park and from Pearl Street. The Trail will begin to climb at Pearl street to ramp up over the Purple Line trains in the Tunnel.

see:
http://www.savethetrailpetition.org