Council Committee Approves White Flint Road Projects, Moves Up Hoya Street

Western Workaround projects: Realigned Executive Boulevard, new Main/Market Street and Hoya Street intersection White Flint District West: Hoya Street extended and reconstructed Rockville Pike

Three large projects that would remake the road network of White Flint got the OK from a Council committee on Monday.

The Council’s Transportation Committee reviewed County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommendations for $163.4 million worth of funding spread over three projects that include a realigned Executive Boulevard, extended Nebel Street, two new roads and reconstructed Rockville Pike.

The money was supposed to come from proceeds from the new White Flint special taxing district. But lower than expected returns (the taxing district has collected $1.6 million from property owners so far) mean the difference is being made up by advances from the county’s General Fund reserve.

Special tax district bonds will be issued by 2015 or 2016. The taxing district is projected to take in $1.2 million this fiscal year, then $1.2 million, $1.6 million, $2.1 million, $2.9 million and $3.7 million over the next five years.

White Flint District East: Executive Boulevard extended, new private street, Nebel Street extended and bridge over White Flint Metro platformThe committee agreed to keep all of Leggett’s recommendations in the capital budget. Led by chair Roger Berliner, it also agreed to recommend that $7.3 million of construction for a new Hoya Street be moved into the six-year schedule for capital projects.

Leggett didn’t include it in his recommendations.

Those recommendations cover $55 million over the next six years for various Western Workaround projects: Main Street/Market Street (a new 1,200-foot, two-lane roadway from Old Georgetown Road to Woodglen Drive), construction of a bikeway along that street, and realigning four-lane Executive Boulevard for 900 feet.

Leggett recommended construction on Main/Market Street to begin in FY 2017 and construction on the realigned Executive Boulevard to go from FY 2016-FY 2020. The Western Workaround also includes work on an improved Old Georgetown Road intersection with Hoya Street to go from FY 17 to FY 19.

The Council memo includes detailed cost projections and schedules for all of the projects.

Some of the projects require right-of-way purchases that have yet to be finalized, which MCDOT officials said means the costs could increase.

Councilmember Hans Riemer recommended adding a sentence to each of the project descriptions that would allow the possibility of a private-public partnership to help pay for and expedite new road construction and realignment.

At a Friends of White Flint open house on Monday, Berliner said moving the Hoya Street project up will help lessen the load on six-lane Old Georgetown Road and could lead to fewer lanes and a more pedestrian-friendly version of the major thoroughfare.

“Maybe we can get down to five lanes. Maybe we can get this right and we can do that if we encourage people to use Hoya as opposed to Old Georgetown,” Berliner said.

Some in White Flint were disappointed by preliminary designs for a new Old Georgetown Road that kept all six lanes, saying it would not be conducive to pedestrians at the new Pike & Rose development.

Hoya Street, now a two-lane road that runs behind the old Mid-Pike Plaza, would be converted to a four-lane road and connected to Old Georgetown Road on its south end and Montrose Parkway on the north end.

Images via Montgomery County Office of Management and Budget

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up