Beltway Alert in Bethesda
After I did some traffic advisories for this week, a reader commented: "Dr. Gridlock, you've missed the new road construction on the inner loop after Old Georgetown Rd. Could you tell us what MD SHA is doing this time around?"
Chuck Gischlar, spokesman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, says workers had inspected the trees and brush along the Beltway between Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike, and they realized they needed to do some trimming for safety's sake.
The left lane on the inner loop is blocked for this work between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.. This portion of the job should be completed by tomorrow. But then the work zone will shift to the left lane of the outer loop in the same area, as well as to the ramp lanes in the Rockville Pike and I-270 interchanges with the Beltway, Gischlar said.
This maintenance work will continue to involve left lane closures on the outer loop between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays and the narrowing of ramp lanes at the interchanges. The crews are likely to be out there well into August.
Our commenter on the blog entry noted that this is a narrow area of the Beltway to begin with, so traffic is really backing up during the work hours.
By |
July 31, 2007; 12:46 PM ET
Commuting
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Posted by: xyv1027 | August 1, 2007 4:34 PM
Same old tired story.
Never-ending "roadwork" for every reason but increasing capacity.
And people put with the constant inconvenience that gains them nothing. No wonder we can't get any new roads.
Posted by: CEEAF | August 2, 2007 4:23 PM
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Thanks for the info, Dr. G!
The inner loop is the worst stretch of road in this stretch. I think that the delays and effects of construction on the ramps and even in the left lane of the outer loop will be far less.
I still question the viability of doing any midday roadwork on the beltway these days since AM rush lasts until 10am and the afternoon drive starts by early afternoon (or earlier on Fridays).
(As another aside, MD SHA had roadwork two days last week in the left lane of the inner loop at River Rd, delays at 11:30am began back at the Toll Rd. This was all due to one very brief, single lane closure directly under the River Rd overpass. Case in point how much one minor project, e.g. tree-trimming, can have on this regions roads that are bursting at their seams most anytime of day.)
At least DC is not LA (yet)... The 405 in LA is backed-up for literally 16-18 hours per day; I've sat in traffic on the 405 near Santa Monica at 5am, 11am, 5pm and 11pm.