TheWashCycle

Good news and bad news for the Capital Crescent Trail expansion - victim of the troubled Purple Line

Workers building the Purple Line, and with it the Capital Crescent Trail, have stopped construction as the companies they work for quit the project.  This will likely delay the opening of the trail by at least a year. .

Contractors closed up the sites and then management was transferred to the state which took over, via MDOT and MTA, some of the contracts. The state says it's committed to completing the project, and using money from the Transportation Trust Fund to do so, but Maryland also says that the departure will result in delays of a year or two, which would push opening to 2024 or 2025. Montgomery County is paying for the trail (and part of the Silver Spring Green Trail), though Maryland is in charge of building it.

The two have been bickering about cost overruns and delays for at least half a year and over the summer a court had to grant a restraining order to temporarily prevent the contractors from walking away while they tried to resolve it, but that has failed and the restraining order was lifted. 

The cost overruns are caused by a combination of coronavirus delays, construction changes demanded by CSX, right-of-way acquisition problems (or failures), code requirements, oh yeah and a stupid lawsuit filed by the anti-transit group the "Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail".

The lawsuit added 266 days and about $200 million 

It's mixed news on the lawsuit front

FOCCT (pronounced fəked) continues to sue to shut the Purple Line project down for good, and they continue to lose. In April, a federal judge ruled that the permit that the Army Corps of Engineers issued for the project was proper. And so that ends the suing.  

Just kidding. Nothing but the heat death of the universe can do that as long as some people argue that BRT off the ROW would have been better (The state studied that and decided it wouldn't be). FOCCT, along with resident Leonard Scensny and former Chevy Chase resident John Fitzgerald was back in court in July arguing that the Federal Appeals Court should vacate the permit.  Last month the Army Corps of Engineers argued that FOCCT hasn't identified any material flaws in their permit and urged them to affirm the lower court's ruling. 

Good news - Bethesda Tunnel approved

In a related subject, Montgomery County has committed to building the new trail tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue. For those who don't recall, the Georgetown Branch Trail used to run through the old rail tunnel, but that tunnel will be needed for the Purple Line and can't easily be widened. So instead they're going to build a new, additional tunnel south of the Purple Line tunnel. There will also be an on-street route south of that.

In 2017, the County estimated the tunnel would cost $25M, however when they completed 70% of the design that cost went up just a smidge to $54M.

The 1,000'-long tunnel would begin near the north end of Elm Street Park, pass beneath 47th Street and the east leg of Elm Street, continue under Wisconsin A venue and the new Carr Buildings, and emerge at the planned Woodmont Avenue plaza. It would be 16' wide, containing a 12'-wide trail with 2' to either side as shoulders/shy areas to the side walls. It would have about 12' 6" of headroom. It would have two underground curved sections: a slight curve near the west end beneath the Carr Buildings and a tighter curve near the east end beneath Elm Street Park The steepest grade would be 4.9%, within the 5% grade required to meet ADA standards. The tunnel would be well lit and be outfitted with security cameras and emergency phones. 

Construction will take 30 months. 

County Executive Marc Elrich decided not to fund the tunnel in January because it was too expensive and more than 100 residents showed up to complain. Council staff recommended a slightly cheaper tunnel that was narrower and with less headroom. But the County Council ignored that recommendation and in an informal vote(?) in April, voted unanimously for the good tunnel. Work is to begin in 2023 and finish in 2026. 

McDOT public meeting on Silver Spring Bike lanes and Secure bike parking next week

On Feb. 4th, Montgomery County DOT will host a public meeting on the Dixon Avenue Separated Bike Lanes, Silver Spring Secure Bike Parking Facility, and Cameron St to Planning Place Bikeway.

The Dixon Avenue Separated Bike lane is a two block long separated bike lane between Wayne and Ripley that will be installed just east of the Silver Spring Metro Station and MBT. The proposed design calls for a pair of one-way separated bike lanes on either side of the street. These bike lanes would be one-way bike lanes separated from traffic by a barrier located on either side of the street

The Silver Spring Secure Bike Parking Facility will be located in the base of Montgomery County parking garage found on the southeast corner of Bonifant Street and Dixon Avenue (where the parking symbol is in the map above). It will provide a secure location where cyclists can lock their bikes while commuting or visiting downtown Silver Spring. This will be similar to the bike and ride facility at College Park Metro and the Bikestation at Union Station. 

A bike parking facility in the location of the transit station has been discussed for more than a decade, and at varying locations, but some of the justification for it may have just been overcome by events with the metro bike-on-rail rule change. 

The third project to be discussed at the meeting is the two-way cycletrack being planned for the Fenton Street corridor from Cameron to Planning Place.  The route is an extension of Fenton that currently serves as a partially closed one way alley.  The cycletrack will run between the Montgomery County parking garage number 2 and the rear of the Sheraton Hotel. At Planning Place, the cycletrack will connect with the “Purple Pathway” leading to Woodland Drive

The meeting is scheduled for February 4 from 7-9 p.m. at Silver Spring Int'l Middle School. These projects are being funded through the county’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Priority Area (BiPPA) Program.

Spring Street Cedar Street Buffered bike lanes almost finished

Montgomery County is almost done striping and marking the new Spring Street Cedar Street buffered/protected bike lane, which will connect the future Capital Crescent Trail to the future Silver Spring Green Trail (both of which will be completed as part of the Purple Line project, which you may have heard has just started). 

The county has been striping Cedar Street.

And Spring Street which will place the bike lane between the sidewalk and parked cars.

They have a new pedestrian island

And cyclists are already out using the lane (even before the flexposts have been installed).

And then last night, they live-tweeting the installation of the green thermoplastic.

And for the bike box (can you spot the manager)

The bike lane runs along the north side of downtown.

When this is complete, they'll follow it with a protected bike lane on Wayne, from the left end of the pink line above to Georgia Avenue.

In ~5 years when the CCT is completed, it will connect to the Sarbanes Center as will the Metropolitan Branch Trail (which may be done by then??) and the Silver Spring Green Trail. Later the SSGT will be extended to the Sligo Creek Parkway and thus the Anacostia Tributary Trails. This separated bike lane would then serve as a northern alternative to the SSGT and would make a nice little downtown loop.

from Bethesda Beat

What's really needed after that is a direct east west connection between Sligo Creek and the WB&A Trail via College Park and Greenbelt. Then we'll have a real bicycle network north of DC. 

Update: The bike lanes are to be finished by the end of the month and will include "flexible plastic bollards and signs to protect and help guide cyclists along the new bike lanes." 

Apex Building replacement will create (part of) a new tunnel for the Capital Crescent Trail with a bike parking and maintenance space

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.)

Unfortunately, 

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.

Silver Spring's Second and Wayne Avenue bikeway will connect trails through downtown

Sometime in 2018, MCDOT hopes to build a protected bike lane on Second and Wayne Avenues in downtown Silver Spring. This road diet, would create the county's 5th protected bike lane. 

This project will follow the Spring Street/Cedar Street Separated Bike Lanes project (the county's 4th protected bike lane), which is being constructed in Spring 2017. It will connect to, and extend those lanes west - where they will connect to the future Capital Crescent Trail.  On the east side, it would connect to the Silver Spring Green Trail. 

Because the road has different widths in different locations, the design differs from section to section. From Spring to Fenwick, there will be conventional 5' wide bike lanes. From Fenwick to Colesville Road there will be one-way, 6' wide separated bike lanes on each side, with a 6' wide buffer.

From Colesville Road to Georgia Avenue it will have a 2-way, 8' wide separated bikeway on the north side of the street. This will be accomplished by moving the curb in and taking advantage of an old bus bay. 

The most unusual, and likely most controversial, part is the so-called "Colesville Transition," where eastbound cyclists will turn across the avenue to the north side to join the two-way bikeway.

Other intersections will be redesigned too. Designs use two-stage queue box pavement markings, colored paint, and floating bus stops. 

And at Spring and Second, there will be a protected intersection.

The final design should be done this upcoming summer, with the 3-4 month project starting in late 2017 or early 2018. A .pdf with the full current design can be found here.

Public comments can be sent to [email protected] until December 21st. 

 

Extension of Capital Crescent Trail (and the Purple Line) dealt serious setback by courts

Just when I thought the Purple Line project had finally cleared every hurdle, it has suffered a serious setback thanks to a court ruling yesterday. This matters to cyclists, because the project will also extend the Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring, extend the Green Trail to Sligo Creek, build a brand new University of Maryland bicycle path from the intersection of Campus Drive and Presidential Drive to US Route 1, move part of the Rock Creek Park Trail out of the floodplain and more.

Maryland officials had scheduled a public event for Monday to sign a funding agreement in which federal officials are expected to commit $900 million in grants toward the project’s $2 billion construction, according to three officials with knowledge of the event. The signing of that agreement was considered the last major hurdle before construction could begin.

But yesterday, the court ruled that the EIS was no longer valid

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ordered that the Maryland Transit Administration’s “record of decision” on the Purple Line — the federal stamp of approval on the project’s environmental analysis — be set aside until the state recalculates the ridership projections done for that study.

Whether Leon’s decision will delay that start is not clear. However, during a June 15 hearing in the case, attorneys for the MTA and the federal government said refiguring the ridership forecasts could push back the project by six months and unravel its $5.6 billion, 36-year public-private partnership.

How the Purple Line will change, and improve, trails in suburban Maryland

Maryland has chosen a team to build, operate and maintain the Purple Line in suburban Maryland. If the contract is approved by the state’s Board of Public Works on April 6, "the six-year construction project would begin late this year, and the 16-mile line would open for service by spring 2022."

In addition to the Purple Line, this project will transform and extend several trails, and create new ones. The unpaved, at-grade trail from Bethesda to Lyttonsville will be reconstructed as a paved trail with grade-separated crossings of major streets, extended to Silver Spring and rebranded as the Capital Crescent Trail. The project will also build a University of Maryland Bicycle Path and impact the Silver Spring (or Montgomery County in the P3 Documents) Green Trail, Rock Creek Trail, Metropolitan Branch Trail and the Northwest Branch Trail. 

The Capital Crescent Trail - extended

The team -  Purple Line Transit Partners, led by construction giant Fluor Corporation - will design and build the CCT for the 3.3 miles from Bethesda to the CSX railroad tracks in Lyttonsville and then along the west side of the tracks to the Talbot Avenue Bridge. It will cross the tracks on a new Talbot Avenue Bridge and then follow along the east side of the tracks to the Silver Spring Transit Center. The trail will be 12 feet wide with 2-foot unpaved shoulders except where physically constrained and separated from the Transitway by 10-feet landscaped buffers, except again where constrained. The entire trail will have a minimum 18 mph design speed.

From Pearl Street in Bethesda to Rock Creek the Trail will be on the north side of the Transitway, and will cross over Connecticut Avenue on a tied arch bridge (see below)

The trail will then pass under Jones Mill Road and cross Rock Creek on it's own bridge, below the Transitway bridge "to allow unobstructed views of the Rock Creek Valley." The Rock Creek Bridge will be a tri-cord, parabolic vierendeel truss (duh) that will be 16' wide at the abutments and 20' wide in the middle. An ADA compliant, switchback connection between the CCT and Rock Creek Trail will be built north of the Transitway.

From Rock Creek to Lyttonsville the trail will be on the south side of the Transitway. The trail has 22 identified connections (see Exhibit 1.4) at places like Lynn Drive and Sleaford Road. Where these connections are stairs, the stairs will include bike runnels. 

The trail will have lighting at all entrances, exits and underpasses and boxes to accommodate future lighting on the entire trail length will be constructed every 100 feet. 

The current documents have the CCT connecting to the Bethesda Station via a sidewalk, but that could all change if the Apex Building comes down. 

Silver Spring Green Trail

The Green Trail will have to be reconstructed from Fenton Street to Cedar Street and a new segment will be built from Cedar Street to the Sligo Creek Trail. The green trail will be 8 feet wide with a 5 foot buffer except at 801 Wayne where it will be 9 feet with no buffer.

University of Maryland Bicycle Path

The construction team will design and built a bicycle path paralleling the Purple Line from the intersection of Campus Drive and Presidential Drive to US Route 1. 

Northwest Branch Trail

The Northwest Branch Trail may be temporarily detoured from the eastern to the western side of West Park Drive, but access to the trail will be maintained throughout the work period. 

Rock Creek Trail

The Rock Creek Trail beneath the bridges will be raised on an elevated wooden boardwalk out of the 2 year floodplain. It will be detoured as necessary and remain open during work. 

Other amenities

Where sufficient ROW is available all MDSHA roadways will include bike accommodations at the intersections. Exhibit 1.3 identifies 10 bike lanes and 1 shared lane that will be built to connect in to the trails as well. 

At Coquelin Run, a concrete culvert, with knock out panels that can be removed later, will be constructed for a future trail.

At the Silver Spring Transit Center, the Metropolitan Branch Trail will be included with the Plaza Level Design.

The project will include bike racks at several designated locations and CCTV coverage of bicycle parking at stations.

Purple Line trains will accommodate up to 8 bicycles on a maximum length train.

During construction, all existing bicycle connections and access will be maintained, and when obstructed an alternate route will be provided. 

Three new bridges will replace the University Blvd Bridge over Northwest Branch and they will have 5' wide bike lanes on them.

Meeting on Silver Spring separated bike lanes tomorrow night

Montgomery County is hosting a public meeting about proposed separated bike lanes on Spring and Cedar Streets in Silver Spring tomorrow night (7-9pm, Silver Spring Civic Center, Ellsworth Room, 1 Veterans Place).

The facility will connect the future Capital Crescent Trail to the future Silver Spring Green Trail along Wayne Avenue. BethesdaMagazine adds

Matt Johnson, the project manager, said county transportation planners will be looking for feedback on the proposal at the Feb. 2 meeting. He said MCDOT expects a cost estimate soon.

It would be the second separated bike lane project in Montgomery County, following a two-way separated bike lane that was installed in late 2014 on Woodglen Drive in White Flint.

The lanes on Spring and Cedar streets would include a buffer, possibly flex posts, between the bike lane and vehicle traffic.

Silver Spring is going to turn into a real bicycle crossroads if all the plans are brought to fruition. When completed, the CCT will connect to the Sarbanes Center as will the Metropolitan Branch Trail and the Silver Spring Green Trail. In the future the SSGT will be extended to the Sligo Creek Parkway and thus the Anacostia Tributary Trails. This separated bike lane would then serve as a northern alternative to the SSGT and would make a nice little downtown loop.

What's really needed after that is a direct east west connection between Sligo Creek and the WB&A Trail via College Park and Greenbelt. Then we'll have a real bicycle network north of DC. 

Toole Design assessed the trail plans for the trails along the Purple Line back in 2013. For the SSGT, they recommended that the path be 10 feet wide where public ROW is available or small amounts of private ROW can be acquired.

Locations where current plans suggest that a 10-foot width is possible within public ROW include the following:

• Between Springvale Road and Cloverfield Road

• Between Cloverfield Road and Greenbrier Drive.

• Between Silver Spring International Middle School (station 653+15) and station 656+62, to the east.

They add

Additionally, consideration should be given to a design cross section that would include a 3.5 foot buffer with a split rail wood fence (or other style wood fence) and a 9.5-11.5 foot wide asphalt path (varying based upon availability of public ROW). Because the path is on a significant slope, crosses a number of driveways and is adjacent to an arterial roadway, somewhat unique safety issues are present. It will be easy for a bicyclist to travel at a relatively high speed in the east bound direction (downhill); 15-25 mph. The five foot buffer may not provide adequate recovery space for an errant cyclist, especially a child or youth cyclist, causing them to cross the buffer, drop off the curb and enter the roadway against opposing traffic.

And they make a good point about the Sligo Creek Trail

TDG concurs with the concerns raised by Planning Staff. Additionally, TDG is aware that the Sligo Creek Trail was designed many years ago. In its current condition in this area, it is substandard in width, and it appears that the Purple Line project is not bringing the parts of the trail impacted by the project up to current standards. It is a best practice to have every capital transportation project improve the other transportation facilities in its area of impact. The Sligo Creek trail is expected to be a major feeder of bicycle and pedestrian traffic to the Purple Line, thus the Purple Line will result in increased trail traffic which the project should accommodate. Moreover, improving a portion of the Sligo Trail will encourage its use for Purple Line access and help ensure that Purple Line ridership projections are met.

Planning dept asking for some (good) changes to Purple Line/CCT

Highlights:

The county Planning Board on Thursday, March 20 will hold a public hearing about comments it will send to the Maryland Transit Administration, the agency in charge of the Purple Line.

The state and federal governments will have final say when it comes to the final design of the estimated $2.37 billion project. On Thursday, the Planning Department showed off a special web page dedicated to what it will tell the MTA in a series of mandatory referrals on the light rail, the Capital Crescent Trail, Silver Spring Green Trail and Bethesda Metro Station South Entrance.

Many comments are small in nature — planners ask the MTA to provide bicycle channels on stairway connections on the Capital Crescent Trail, to widen a planned sidewalks along East-West Highway and to build a Connecticut Avenue traction power substation into the tracks and trail to reduce visual impacts.

Staff also is asking the MTA to accommodate a stair on the north side of the trail at the planned Chevy Chase Lake Purple Line station. That stair would be provided by the developer of the area.

Staff also put together an interactive map that points to parts of the Purple Line design where county planners would like to see changes.

Other ideas from the website (the map really. It's very useful)

• In addition to lighting the Capital Crescent Trail under the Lyttonsville Place bridge, provide wall-wash lighting along the bridge abutment walls to enhance pedestrian safety

• Widen the proposed 5-foot wide sidewalk on both sides of Lyttonsville Place to at least 7 feet to meet AASHTO recommendations and provide bicycle lanes by removing the “activity lane”.
• Provide a larger landing area at the base of the proposed ramp down to the Capital Crescent Trail from Lyttonsville Place. The landing and crossing could be designed to incorporate local historical and cultural enhancements.
• Eliminate both rows of parking on the Spring Street bridge. Widen the proposed 5-foot-wide sidewalks to 13 feet wide. Separate the 16-foot-wide shared travel lane into 11-foot-wide thru lanes and 5-foot-wide bike lanes.
• SSTC Trail Access - Evaluate whether it is possible to provide direct access to the Purple Line mezzanine from the Capital Crescent Trail to the east of the escalator. 
• Relocate the stormwater management facility proposed on the remnant of 1110 Bonifant Street to an offsite location. After completion of the Purple Line, the County should be given first right of refusal for use of the remnants of this parcel for the Silver Spring Bicycle Parking Facility. 
• Manchester Place Station Bicycle Access -Continue to explore ways for cyclists traveling on Wayne Avenue to cross the Purple Line tracks at a 60 to 90 degree angle. 
• Extend the Piney Branch Road culvert at Long Branch to permit future construction of a 10-foot wide sidewalk.
• Construct cycle tracks (or buffered bike lanes) on University Boulevard where right-of-way is available, and transition from the cycle tracks (or buffered bike lanes) to bicycle lanes where the right-of-way is constrained. However, if there is not agreement to construct cycle tracks, provide 8-foot-shared use paths along both sides of University Boulevard where right-of-way is available or property acquisitions occur as recommended in the Long Branch Sector Plan and Takoma/ Langley Crossroads Sector Plan. Where sufficient space is not available, the shared use path should transition into a sidewalk.

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.