Work on Towne Road, infrastructure continue in ‘White Flint West Workaround’ project

Construction could last into 2023, transportation official says

March 7, 2022 4:42 p.m.

Two years after construction began on the “White Flint West Workaround” project by Pike & Rose in North Bethesda, the remaining work is on infrastructure and the completion of a road, according to a Montgomery County transportation official.

The project involves realigning the intersection of Old Georgetown Road and Executive Boulevard. When completed, it will be a four-way intersection with:

  • Old Georgetown Road approaching from the south, as it does now
  • Old Georgetown Road continuing east from the intersection to Md. 355
  • Towne Road running north-south between the intersection and Josiah Henson Parkway, formerly known as Montrose Parkway
  • Executive Boulevard approaching from the west, as it does now

    Map from Montgomery County Department of Transportation website.

When the project is completed, drivers traveling north on Old Georgetown Road will turn right at the intersection to stay on the road, because the road will no longer curve naturally to the east as it currently does.

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Drivers traveling north on Old Georgetown Road can access Towne Road by continuing straight at the intersection.

Timothy Cupples, the chief of the transportation department’s Division of Transportation Engineering, told Bethesda Beat last week that construction crews are finishing work on Towne Road, which will travel along the western boundary of Pike & Rose.

“That’s where a lot of the work is at this point. And utility relocations in that area, storm drain construction … those kinds of things are going on in that area,” he said.

Dewa Salihi, the department’s acting construction section chief, said there is also work underway on curb lanes, medians and other infrastructure.

Salihi said the workaround construction project started in 2020.

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A previous part of the project that has been completed involved realigning Executive Boulevard, which previously continued east past Old Georgetown Road before curving south and passing the Bethesda North Marriott. Drivers must now use Old Georgetown Road to access Grand Park Avenue, which later turns into the southern portion of Executive Boulevard.

Cupples said construction is supposed to be finished by the end of this year, but the winter months limit construction, and work could last into the spring of 2023.

“Some of the very last things that we need to accomplish at the end of the calendar year [2022] are highly weather-dependent,” he said. “You can only put pavement markings down in certain temperatures. You can only put the final course of asphalt down in certain temperatures.”

Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@moco360.media

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