I like your location better. Rick Marvin and I had originally thought that your
proposed location would be the best place.
There was some concern that the geometry of the underpass would require a greater
distance between the roads. The key is to have the City hire an engineer to do some
real analysis. Currently they do not seem inclined. Frankly, they are looking at it as
a non-starter. What a shame that we can't get them to at least take a serious look at a
potential solution to a real problem (dangerous at-grade crossings, excessive air horn
blasts, unnecessary vehicular congestion in our neighborhoods.)
http://www.eskimo.com/~bob/gaithersburg-list/wdup.gif
Bob Drzyzgula wrote:
> Tom,
>
> Thanks for this post, it's very interesting, and I'd be happy
> to post the graphic when you send it to me. As I mentioned to
> you in a private email, I think that your original message didn't
> go out because it was over the 40KB limit due to the attachments.
>
> I also have been concerned about the State's plan for West Diamond,
> and I had separately written to the Council wondering about the
> wisdom of the plan to bring that street through to Summit. For
> referenece, people might want to take a look at the map I snagged
> from Mapquest: http://www.eskimo.com/~bob/gaithersburg-list/wdiamond.gif
> In there, one can see exactly what we're talking about. West Diamond
> (117 on the map) comes from the West and does it's on/off-ramp thing
> around 355. The State wants to re-do the part on the East side of
> 355, running 117 into, I believe, the bend in E Cedar so that that
> East-bound traffic will dump onto Summit, presumably with a traffic
> light. This would, of course, put additional pressure on the grade-level
> crossing on Summit. Right now, an effective, although non-obvious
> and inconvenient, way to get from 117 to Olde Towne is to come up
> over the bridge and zip (poor choice of words, but then that's part
> of the problem, no?) down Brookes. With the State's plan, drivers will
> be able to continue down 117 to Summit, but then will have to cross
> the tracks at-grade to get to the businesses along East Diamond.
>
> What would seem to many of us to be a far superior option would be
> to dig an underpass for 117 near Uncle Bob's. You can see on the
> map that 117 and East Diamond are very close there, and there is
> actually a reasonable stretch of undeveloped land (amounting pretty
> much to just the CSX right-of-way) there, so it might be possible to do
> without sigificant displacement of businesses or residences.
> Such an underpass would, in my mind, result in a number of
> positive outcomes:
>
> * Traffic on 117 could enter Olde Towne without (a) crossing
> the tracks at-grade, (b) making any use of 355 and (c)
> making any use of residential, neighborhood streets.
>
> * Businesses at the West end of East Diamond would gain
> a much greater visibility. The underpass would probably
> come up somewhere between Roy's and Old Siam, and could
> improve the viability of that area for these businesses
> and others that might follow.
>
> * Traffic coming off 355 headed for 117 or Muddy Branch,
> that now go straight down Chestnut, would have a new,
> grade-level-crossing-free route to do this; they
> could simply turn off Chestnut, onto East Diamond,
> and then onto West Diamond through the underpass.
>
> This seems an ideal, or at least optimal, solution to a number
> of traffic problems that we have in the area, but as far as I
> know it will elude us, for what reasons I'm not sure.
>
> --Bob
>
> On Fri, Jul 14, 2000 at 04:33:08AM -0700, Thomas Patton wrote:
> > Thanks Becky for bringing up Chestnut/Meem and the RR crossing.
> >
> > I would be interested to see the results of the Chestnut/Meem charrette posted.
> >
> > I also think the the removal of the crossing via and underpass would make the
> > area safer (see attached post article). It would also reduce the air-horn blasts
> > by 50% (they would only need to blast at the Summit Ave. crossing). See attached
> > article on other community attempts to stop the air-horn blast.
> >
> > Rick Marvin has requested that the City investigate the Federal "G" funding to
> > support the under-pass concept. Rick's suggestion is that the underpass be
> > located East of the Cannery building, and cross near where the Steel Fabricator
> > and Uncle Bob's self storage are currently located. I will send a graphic to
> > Bob. He may choose to post it on the web site.
> >
> > See the attached FHA document that describes the federal funding guidelines.
> >
> > Judging from the staff's response to Rick's inquiries, I don't think that the
> > City plans to do more that state that it is economically un-feasible.
> >
> > -Tom
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jul 19 2000 - 16:04:17 EDT
