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Major road projects mean summer slowdowns in Montgomery
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(Brig Cabe/Examiner)
The Grovesnor Lane overpass of Interstate-270’s eastern leg to the I-495 Washington Beltway has been closed. Major highway work will dominate the rest of the summer in Montgomery County, including a rare bridge closing over Interstate 270. From resurfacing jobs to bridge repairs, the next several months will be filled with millions of dollars’ worth of projects on state roads, according to David Buck, a spokesman for the State Highway Administration. The biggest impact to drivers likely will be the closing of Grovesnor Lane over I-270, which began last week and is scheduled to reopen in late August. Buck said crews will replace the deck of the nearly 50-year-old bridge, which is structurally sound yet requires replacement. The $3 million project also includes restriping the highway, widening the existing sidewalk to 5 feet and resurfacing the Grosvenor Lane approach to the bridge. “It’s rare for us to close down a bridge or roadway, but sometimes we do it to speed up the project,” Buck said. “When we have the opportunity, we try to do it in the summer months when traffic’s slower.” In comparison a major $45-million project to reconstruct and widen Route 124 in Montgomery County near the air park about to start is set to take at least two years because crews must work around the traffic, rather than shutting down the roadway. “Right now there it has two or four lanes, depending on the section of roadway. And these 11-or 12-foot wide lanes with no median or shoulder,” he said. “When this is done the stretch will be a six-lane divided road with 12 to 18-foot concrete barriers and a 5-foot shoulder. It has huge significance because it’s very congested on that section.” In terms of resurfacing jobs in Montgomery County, the State Highway Administration this month will begin improvements along more than 1.5 miles of Georgia Avenue between Veirs Mill and Randolph roads -- a project scheduled to cost $4 million. Also, state workers will resurface 4.5 miles along I-270 in a $16 million, one-year effort. More information: » Call the State Highway Administration’s District 3 office at 301-513-7300. dlevitz@dcexaminer.com |