Montgomery County has been working on a bicycle sidepath along Needwood road for several years now, and Phase I is nearing completion, with paving underway for the segment of bike path east of Beach drive.
When complete, Phase I will build a sidepath on the south side of Needwood Drive from the ICC Trail terminus to the west side of Lake Needwood. Work should complete in March of 2017
Phase II is scheduled to start in the fall of 2017 and take 9 months to complete. It will continue the path west to Deer Lake Road and east to Muncaster Mill Road (MD 115). On the western end at Deer Lake Road it will connect to a section built in 2015-2016. That section is a 1300 foot long path from Deer Lake to Redland Road and it completed in April. There it connects with existing bike facilities west of Redland and south along Redland to the Shady Grove Metro Station, thereby tying the ICC Trail to Metro on its west side.
In addition, Phase II provides a 6-foot wide sidewalk over approximately 800 feet of length along the east side of Muncaster Mill Road from the intersection with Needwood Road to the northern entrance of Colonel Zadok Magruder High School.
Also for those who spend time in Germantown, section 3 of the Clopper Road sidepath should be completed by now. First funded by a 2013 Maryland Bikeways Grant, section 3 closes the gap between section 1 and section 2 to create a continuous path from Steeple Road to Great Senaca Highway. Section 1, from Steeple Road to Hopkins Road, and Section 2, from Village Fountain Drive to Little Star Lane were both completed in January 2013. Back in 2010, there was a plan to build a similar sidepath from Steeple Road (aka Festival Way) further west to Slidell Road, which would take it past the Boyds MARC station; but I'm not sure what became of that effort.
Back in early November, MCDOT was saying this should be complete by Thanksgiving, so I'd be surprised if it were not finished by now.
Great to see these much needed connections being made. Big thanks to Montgomery County DOT & MD SHA for making this happen!
Posted by: Joe F | December 30, 2016 at 06:40 PM