Chevy Chase to Hold Hearing on Purple Line Crossing

From a news release:

The Chevy Chase Town Council will seek residents’ views at a public hearing Wednesday, July 9, at 8:30 p.m. on a proposed pedestrian crossing of the Purple Line that would serve walkers who make at least 230 crossings from the Lynn Drive path daily – many of them students going to and from B-CC High School.

The Town Council wants to hear residents’ opinions on the crossing proposal before deciding whether to ask the state to include it in final plans for the Purple Line, which will be built on the current Capital Crescent Trail and will move the trail north of the tracks.

Over the past 4 ½ years, the Maryland Transit Administration has presented several designs for pedestrian crossings near Lynn Drive which the town has rejected as unsafe or unworkable. During these discussions, the town’s Purple Line Mitigation Advisory Group urged MTA to slow trains to make a safe at-grade crossing possible, but the state declined to slow the trains and said even if it did, a safe at-grade crossing cannot be built.

MTA’s latest crossing proposal is to elevate the tracks to accommodate a pedestrian underpass that would use the town’s existing Lynn Drive path to the trail. From the path, walkers would turn left and walk about 250 feet toward Bethesda on a 5-foot-wide sidewalk to a pedestrian underpass beneath the tracks and the Capital Crescent Trail, culminating at switchback ramps and steps to the trail and Montgomery Avenue.

The underpass would require 23-foot-high walls, compared to 18-foot walls if no underpass is built. The underpass would also require temporary construction easements, property acquisition and construction costs not currently included in state plans. It is unclear how the state, county and town would share these costs.

An illustrated description of the proposed crossing, presented to the Town Council and the community on June 11, can be viewed from a link on the home page of the Town’s website, www.townofchevychase.org.

Residents who cannot attend the July 9 hearing can submit comments to the Town Office or townoffice@townofchevychase.org prior to the July 9 council meeting.