The developers of the Apex Building site recently submitted a sketch amendment to their site plan and it has some good information on what the Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) will look like through the site. The Georgetown Branch currently passes through the site in the old trail tunnel, but that space will feature the Purple Line and its station. The developers are required to design, build and maintain the CCT which will pass through the site in a new tunnel built south of the current tunnel. They also have to build a bicycle storage and maintenance facility and the western entrance to the trail.
The developers are responsible for building the trail's western portal to the Woodmont plaza.
On the floor plan below, you can see how the trail is moved south, how its line has been rerouted and where it ends with a knockout panel on the east side. The trail will be 12 feet wide with 2-foot unpaved shoulders on each side. On the east side, the developers will build the trail up to the eastern edge of the property line, and the county will build the rest of the tunnel from there, under Wisconsin Avenue and then another block to Elm Street Park.
(I have no idea what the referenced Note 8 is. There must be a larger version of these diagrams elsewhere.)
there’s no clear plan for rebuilding the rest of the tunnel to where the trail emerges near Elm Street Park, county officials learned at a Jan. 5 planning meeting.
The tunnel for the trail, estimated to cost $15 million to $30 million, is part of the downtown Bethesda master plan, but no funding is in place to build the underground link, said Tim Cupples, a county transportation designer.
Cupples said it’s only been about seven months since the county and Carr struck an agreement for reworking the section of the underground trail that passes under the developer’s site. At the eastern edge of its property, Carr will install a panel that can be torn down if the other trail tunnel section is constructed.
I don't like the use of the word "if" there, but I'm not too worried the rest of the tunnel won't happen. And the Apex section of the tunnel won't be finished for four years, at the earliest.
The proposed underground trail section, if built, would run underneath Wisconsin Avenue and the buildings that stand along Elm Street, and Cupples said the county will have to work with those property owners to finish the tunnel link.
funding for the trail tunnel likely wouldn’t be considered until the next full CIP review in 2019. However, the council does have the option to fund the project as a supplemental appropriation before the CIP review.
The storage and maintenance facility's design takes advantage of the deep floor‐to‐ceiling height to create upper and lower levels connected by a helical ramp system. The space includes a deceleration area at the trail entrance and room to park over 250 bikes, and has the potential to include showers, changing rooms and other amenities. While this plan will fix the size, location, and arrangement of the platforms and ramps, the “fit‐out” of the space and its operation will be determined at a later stage by MCDOT, either directly or by contract
And you can see from this furnishings concept that it can possibly store a lot of bikes, some accessed by going down to a bike storage facility and some by going up.
During construction, trail uses will lose access to the tunnel.
The county is pushing forward on a roughly $5.23 million project to construct the surface-level path that would send cyclists and pedestrians across Wisconsin Avenue. The county has budgeted about $1.9 million in fiscal 2018 for the interim, above-ground path that has been designed to take trail users around the tunnel as the Purple Line is constructed.
The county has already budgeted about $54 million over the next six years to rebuild the Capital Crescent Trail and pave the interim Georgetown Branch Trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring next to the Purple Line. Those funds are also being used to rebuild the Bethesda Metro station’s south entrance near the Apex Building and build the Silver Spring Green Trail between Spring Street and the Sligo Creek Trail.
I'm sure the "Friends" of the Capital Crescent will announce that this impacts the habitat of the dwarves, and we need to stop the Purple Line until we can have studies definitively proving there are no dwarves.
Posted by: Crickey7 | February 13, 2017 at 11:18 AM
This should be called the Godot line.
Posted by: SJE | February 13, 2017 at 11:29 AM
I swear I have heard faint hi-ho-ing under there late at night.
Posted by: Smedley Burkhart | February 13, 2017 at 01:26 PM
Strange drawing that doesn't make the tunnel look especially inviting. A family strolling along holding hands taking up the lane, a dog walker on a cell phone perpendicular to the trail, a rider materializing recklessly right out of the wall, and a strange bike that can take an entire lane on its own without a rider.
Posted by: DE | February 13, 2017 at 01:31 PM
Well, if you read the Bethesda Mag article, "F"OTCCT does use the fact that there is no money for the east part of the trail as sign of a bait and switch.
Posted by: washcycle | February 13, 2017 at 01:40 PM
DE, my favorite is the woman near the entrance to the bike area. Her bike is missing the bottom rim and her legs are missing her feet.
Posted by: Roo_Beav | February 13, 2017 at 01:59 PM
The wine bar is a nice touch, but unlikely to survive in the final plan.
Posted by: Smedley Burkhart | February 13, 2017 at 03:48 PM