County Staff considering new Capital Crescent Tunnel, connection to Lynn and other improvements to design

On February 28th, Montgomery County Planning Staff plans to give the Planning Board a briefing on the Purple Line, Capital Crescent Trail, and Silver Spring Green Trail Projects. That briefing will cover several issues of interest to cyclists. 

1. Perhaps most relevant is that no one really knows how the state will pay for any of it, and thus whether or not it will be built.  The Preliminary Engineering phase of the Purple Line will wrap up this summer.

At that time the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will issue a Record of Decision (ROD), which signals formal federal approval of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The current schedule is to start final design in fall 2013, start construction in 2015, and to begin service in 2020. This is contingent upon securing funding. A recent cost estimate for the Purple Line estimated a capital cost of $2.2 billion (year of expenditure). The project is proposed to be funded evenly by the state (50%) and the federal government (50%), but the state does not currently have a funding mechanism.

2. As reported previously, if the Purple Line is built, the Air Rights Tunnel will no longer be open to cyclists, but cyclists will be able to walk along a 5-7 foot sidewalk and exit through the Woodmont Plaza walkway.

3. Because of this, MCDOT hired consultants to design a surface alignment for the trail. They expect to complete Phase I of this by late summer 2013. There are still issues to work out.

Council requested that the project team consider a protected signal phase for pedestrian and bicycle crossing of MD 355, and consideration of a left turn prohibition for eastbound Bethesda Avenue at MD 355. Businesses and the Town of Chevy Chase oppose the turn prohibition. MCDOT has developed a potential signal phasing concept that provides for a protected portion for the trail crossing within the signal cycle, while maintaining the left turn movement. The project team is also working to find the proper method to handle crossings for the intersection of Bethesda Avenue and Woodmont Avenue, which is proving to be a challenge based on traffic and pedestrian movements at that location.

4. But, it's noteworthy that they haven't given up on keeping the trail in A tunnel, even if it doesn't remain in this tunnel

The Planning Departments work program includes an update to the Bethesda CBD Sector Plan starting in April 2014 and Planning staff has asked MTA to determine whether a new tunnel crossing for the trail beneath the Apex Building, Wisconsin Avenue, and the Air Rights Building is feasible, and if so, to identify the location and spatial requirements of the tunnel so that it can be considered as part of the Sector Plan update.

5. Until they determine the future of any tunnel, they can't determine the need for the easements they required the Woodmont East development to provide for the trail.

6. Original designs included trail connections to East-West highway and an at-grade crossing of the tracks, but these were pulled for safety reasons. But lately, MTA has developed concepts for a direct connection to Lynn Drive with an underpass below the train. "MTA presented both concepts to the Town of Chevy Chase Mitigation Advisory Group on January 23, 2013 and is awaiting a formal response...Planning staff has concerns with both options."

7. They've redesigned the Silver Spring Transit Center so that there is "no longer a conflict area between cyclists using the Capital Crescent Trail and transit patrons traveling between the second level of the transit center and the Purple Line." You can see how it passes above street level but below the purple line in the images below.

8. In addition to the Capital Crescent Trail, the Purple Line also shares right-of-way with the Silver Spring Green Trail. The Green Trail between Whole Foods and Sligo Creek was delayed to accommodate Purple Line planning. "The Silver Spring Green Trail will ultimately be constructed in conjunction with the Purple Line."

The cross section requirements of the Purple Line require more width than was originally anticipated in the 2003 Silver Spring Green Trail plan. Therefore, it is not possible to continue both a sidewalk and a shared-use path to Sligo Creek Parkway without severely impacting residences. Instead, MTA is proposing to provide a minimum 8-foot shared use path and a minimum 5-foot landscaped panel. The County Council and Planning Board have adopted this recommendation as part of the Purple Line Functional Plan. Bicycle advocates have stated that if the sidewalk is eliminated, the shared-use path should be 10-foot-wide at a minimum, per AASHTO recommendations.

Staff believes that there is room for a 10 foot wide trail with a 5 foot buffer from the road and 2 feet of shy space from the retaining wall. 

In addition, the intersection of Wayne Ave and Cedar Street is particularly problematic for cyclists (see Exhibit 17). Crossing Cedar Street requires cyclists to make four right angle turns, negotiate four ramps, cross a street, and avoid pedestrians. This does not create an experience that matches the importance of this trail. And because of this, it is likely that many cyclists will ride against traffic in Wayne Avenue to cross Cedar Street. While there is limited right-of-way available to better accommodate the trail crossing, there may be some space along the frontage of #801 Wayne Ave. It appears that the stairs to this building were constructed in the public right-of-way. If the stairs were removed, it may be possible to shift the trail away from the road and to improve the crossing. This issue will need to be evaluated in greater detail to better understand if and how the staircase was approved in the public right-of-way. If this encroachment was not approved, the County could consider removing it, which might allow the trail to be shifted away from the road and provide a better crossing

9. Though the right-of-way needed on Arliss Street - where bike lanes are planned - is wider than the existing right-of-way, the extra feet will be found and the bike lanes are still planned. 

Comments

[Wayne Phyillaier]

Thanks for a good review of the CCT issues in the staff report.
The Purple Line looks good on the drawing board, but may die there this spring if the Maryland legislature does not find finding for the Transportation Trust Fund during this session. Plans for the CCT extension into Silver Spring will end along with the Purple Line. That nice aerial structure you see in the sketches bringing the CCT across Colesville Road is inside CSX right-of-way, and CSX will not allow the trail to come through their right-of-way as a stand-alone project.
So, like it or not the future of the CCT in Silver Spring, and the "bicycle beltway", is tied to the Purple Line.

[Think a Little]

I love the renderings, but this will go down like the Silver Spring transit center fiasco....Big Dig writ small

[SJE]

I know that the conventional thinking is that the CCT won't be improved until the Purple Line is built, but I want to propose that we rethink this. Are we REALLY going to get the PL? If not, lets focus on the current desirability of improving the CCT, for a tiny fraction of the PL cost. Do we need to wait for another 20 years?

[washcycle]

Are we REALLY going to get the PL? If not, lets focus on the current desirability of improving the CCT

That's a good plan B. But plan A is to get the PL.

[Wayne Phyillaier]

And just what is "plan B" if we don't get the Purple Line? Yes, we might eventually get the existing trail paved, IF MoCo ultimately gives up on the idea of ever transit in the corridor including Bus Rapid Transit.

But no one has any credible plan to extend the trail into Silver Spring, because of the very hard problem of getting essential CSX r.o.w.
The best we can do is make some improvements to the existing on-road route into downtown Silver Spring.

I challenge anyone to show us how to extend the trail into downtown S.S. as an off-road trail, without using CSX r.o.w. in several places. And I can show several attempts from MoCo to get CSX to discuss r.o.w. in this area, with no success. CSX is being very difficult for the MTA Purple Line planners on this issue, and they have much more leverage with CSX than MoCo ever will. CSX needs approvals from the state for several of their "wish list" projects like expanding their Brunswick Line.

I don't think the state will take CSX on for r.o.w. for the CCT as a stand-alone trail. And MoCo just doesn't have any leverage it can use. I'd like to be wrong on this, but everything I've seen about the CCT, MBT and Purple Line projects in the CSX corridor in the last 15 years brings me to this conclusion.

[Crickey7]

Without the Purple Line, true trail connectivity with SS, CC and Bethesda won't happen. BikeShare in MontCo has no synergy without it.