Drivers headed to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, take note: A new traffic pattern on Pearl Street is about to take effect.

To accommodate the construction work at 4500 East-West Highway (where a McDonald's building once stood), the west lane of Pearl Street between East-West Highway and Montgomery Avenue will be closed in the next few weeks, and the east lane of that block of Pearl Street will become a one-way, southbound lane, according to an email from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.

Signage along both Montgomery Avenue and East-West Highway will alert drivers to the new traffic pattern, the email added.

The groundbreaking for the nine-story, 220,000-square-foot office building took place last November. A new McDonald's will be on the ground floor of the building, which is being developed by Carr Properties and is expected to be substantially complete by the summer of 2014, Patch reported.

The old McDonald's restaurant on the site was torn down starting last December, Patch blogger Ellouise Schoettler reported.

Since then, the site has been cleared for construction, and the installation of support excavation piles was scheduled to be completed by Friday, Feb. 8. Next up: excavation of the entire site, to be completed in early May, according to an email newsletter sent from Carr Properties to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Parent Teacher Student Association.

How has the construction traffic impacted your drive to and from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School? Tell us in the comments.