North Branch Trail construction pushed back to 2021

Construction on a couple of segments of the North Branch Trail, a trail that will eventually extend along the North Branch of Rock Creek from the Rock Creek Valley Trail to Olney, was to begin this spring or last fall, but has been pushed out to 2021.

This project includes two segments (yellow on the map above) of the trail, and together with another bikeway project, will close two critical gaps in the trail.

The first segment will extend the Lake Bernard Frank Trail to two locations along Muncaster Mill Road. At the west location it will connect to the existing Muncaster Mill Bikeway and via that to the ICC Trail. There will also be a 15-car parking lot built there (at Meadowside Lane) and the old parking lots will be restored to a natural state. The other location is further east, where a separate project will build additional segments of bikeway along Muncaster Mill and Emory Lane to the existing bikeway along Emory Lane and via that to the ICC Trail. 

The trail along Lake Frank will follow the existing unpaved trail - itself built on a formerly paved WSSC access road until just south of Muncaster Mill Road. 

Just south of Muncaster Mill Road, the proposed trail alignment climbs the densely wooded slope and emerges in a clearing created by a former residential property, where the house has long been removed. The proposed trail alignment ends at this clearing

The second segment will connect the ICC Trail to a trail along the North Branch built as part of the Preserve at Rock Creek development. That segment - yellow in the image below - was completed around 2016.

The trailhead parking lot will be along Meadowside Lane.

Construction of the Muncaster Mill/Emory Lane bikeway is scheduled for this year.  That would close a small gap on the east side route.

Once these two projects were complete, it would leave only one gap between Tobaggan Lane and Bowie Mill Road, which is less than a mile, that would need to be closed to get all the way to the planned end at Olney Laytonsville Road. It would also create a continuous connection between the ICC Trail (as limited as it is now) and the Rock Creek Park Trail system (really the North Branch Trail is part of the Rock Creek Park Trail system).