It's been nearly 5 years since the Georgetown Branch Interim Trail between downtown Bethesda and Stewart Avenue on the west side of Silver Spring was closed to allow for construction of the Purple Line and extension of the Capital Crescent Trail all the way to the Silver Spring Transit Center and the Metropolitan Branch Trail; and things have not necessarily gone smoothly. In fact 5 years ago the project was expected to complete around now, but delays and a contract dispute that involved managers walking off the job in 2020 have delayed completion to at least October 2026. (But what's a 4 year delay on a project that's already 30+ years old) It's unclear when the trail extension would open, but there is reason to believe it will be prior to 2026, as that section will be completed before the section east of Silver Spring.
The good news is that work should restart in August. The relevant parties recently closed on a new $1.76 billion Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Build America Bureau. Construction is currently underway with a new contractor, and MDOT has been doing some utility work in the interim, but work will really pick up in August.
Along with the light rail and the trail, the Purple Line project will allow for at least one new park alongside both in Lyttonsville, which will serve as a rest stop along the trail. The site is next to the junction between the old Georgetown Branch and the existing CSX tracks and is currently being used as construction staging for the Purple Line. The project intends to incorporate remnants of the historic Talbot Avenue bridge, which used to serve as part of the interim trail and was torn down in 2019. into the park to commemorate the unique history and culture of Greater Lyttonsville.
The process is pretty early on, and a design won't be completed until next summer.
Last year, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich proposed to single-track the Purple Line in downtown Bethesda, thereby allowing the train and the trail to use the same tunnel. The plan has been to build a separate tunnel for the trail, but running them in the same tunnel would save the county $54 million. The Council didn't support it and Maryland rejected the idea. (Maryland is building the light rail, Montgomery County is building the trail).
The County Council and Executive have been debating the tunnel regularly since the trail was closed, in part because the price keeps going up; and this year Elrich proposed delaying the start of the tunnel work by 2.5 years which would mean it wouldn't open until 2030. The funding plan has become an issue in this year's executive election.
In the meantime, Phase 1 of the CCT surface route, between the Bethesda Avenue trailhead and Elm Street Park was completed in May of this year. It's unclear when Phase 2, the part in Elm Street Park, will begin.
Also completed, in April of 2021, was a new trail counter near the Bethesda trailhead.
One other piece of good news from last year is that the lawsuit by opponents of the Purple Line was finally defeated.
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