A Montgomery County Council committee voted unanimously Thursday to alter the popular Capital Crescent Trail so that it crosses Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda, despite the complaints of residents who want to keep the trail in its current underground tunnel.
The trail, which has thousands of joggers and bicycles every week, will be destroyed when the Maryland Transit Administration begins construction on the Purple Line, a 16-mile light rail planned from New Carrollton to Bethesda. For the last 20 years, county officials have planned to construct a new trail that runs alongside the trains.
Keeping the trail in the tunnel would have added about $50 million to a project that could cost the county as much as $70 million. At Thursday’s meeting, the council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee voted to allocate $27.6 million for the trail in the county’s six-year construction budget, expecting to spend additional funds later.
By not keeping the trail in the tunnel, the committee is disregarding public safety, said Ajay Bhatt, president of the Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail.
“I don’t think people realize what 11,000 people crossing Wisconsin Avenue means,” he said.
The trail and a new southern entrance to the Bethesda Metro station — projects that officials have said are necessary for the construction of the Purple Line — together add $103.4 million to the capital budget recommended by County Executive Ike Leggett.
To cut costs, the committee voted 2-1 not to widen Snouffer School Road between Ridge Heights Drive and Centerway Drive as was planned and to reduce funding for residential road resurfacing projects. The committee previously voted to save an additional $50.2 million by delaying the expansion of Goshen Road from Girard Street to Warfield Road.
Leggett called the changes “troubling” in a memo sent Wednesday evening to Committee Chairman and Council President Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda.
On the stretch of Goshen Road planned for widening, 10 out of 18 intersections operate at an unacceptable level of service, and by 2015, 16 intersections will be unacceptable, he said.
The decisions the committee made were a step toward the Purple Line, said Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large.
“We are today voting for a transportation policy agenda that prioritizes transit and public transportation,” he said. “We are rejecting a transportation policy that prioritizes a couple of large road projects.”
