Press Releases - Department of Transportation

For Immediate Release: Thursday, June 22, 2023

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and Alpha Corporation have won a National Recognition Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for their work on the MD 355 Crossing Project completed in February 2022.

ACEC is a national federation of America’s engineering industry consisting of 51 state and regional member organizations that focus on advocacy, education and research. ACEC’s Engineering Excellence Awards highlight the year’s most innovative and impactful engineering triumphs worldwide. The National Recognition Award is a prestigious distinction honoring projects demonstrating exceptional engineering excellence at the national level.

The project, which took roughly five years to complete, was engineered and built to enhance pedestrian/bicyclist safety between the west and east sides of Rockville Pike (MD 355) in Bethesda. It increased the capacity of and improved access to the Medical Center Metrorail Station and the parallel kiss-and-ride served by Ride On, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) and the National Institutes of Health.

“This is one of the most important improvements to pedestrian safety in Montgomery County in recent years,” said County Executive Marc Elrich at the completion ceremony. “MD355/Rockville Pike at the NIH and Walter Reed Metro station has been a dangerous intersection for generations. The employees and visitors of these critical institutions deserved better, and I’m glad we now have a real solution.”

Construction of the complex project includes a shallow pedestrian underpass below MD 355 that provides pedestrians and cyclists a safe means of crossing the busy roadway, new 120-foot-deep high-speed elevators, emergency access stairs connecting the Metro station and the east side of MD 355 and a new elevator and staircase between the existing Metrorail platform and mezzanine level. The project involved deep excavation that was done by drilling and blasting through rock. Also completed were roadway surface improvements, such as a traffic signal, pavement resurfacing, sidewalk/bike path, median work and stormwater management facilities.

Thousands of people cross MD 355 daily to get back and forth between NIH, the County’s largest employer, and the Walter Reed campus. The Medical Center Metro entrance is located on the NIH side of MD 355. Naval Support Activity, known as NSA Bethesda, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center were established in 2011 and are the second-largest employer in Montgomery County.

Pre-COVID-19 numbers indicate that Medical Center Metro Station accommodated around 11,000 Metro riders daily. More than 7,000 pedestrians cross MD 355 to get to the Metro stop, Ride On and the shared-use path on the west side of MD-355.

Over multiple years, the Maryland Congressional Delegation secured $28 million in Federal appropriations for the project from the Defense Access Road program within the Department of Defense budget. Funding also included $40 million for the Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC) for transportation projects at BRAC-impacted military medical facilities. OLDCC also provided a $34 million supplementary award in 2016, bringing total funding for the project to more than $102 million. Additionally, the Crossing Project was combined with the State Highway Administration’s Intersection Improvement Project at MD 355/Jones Bridge Road that was funded with a $4.8 million grant from OLDCC.

MCDOT funded an environmental assessment and led the design and construction of the project. Additional coordinating agencies include the U.S. Navy, WRNMMC, NIH, Federal Highway Administration, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, and WMATA.

The shallow underpass under MD355/Rockville Pike was renamed to honor Phil Alperson, a Silver Spring native who was a leader in the effort and died in May 2020. Mr. Alperson served on the staff of then-Congressman Chris Van Hollen and worked for the Montgomery County Government as the Military Installations Base Realignment and Closure Coordinator.

“Though we miss him sharply, we can still feel his unwavering commitment to our community to this day,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin at the time of the dedication. “Phil worked for years on the MD 355 Crossing Project and naming the pedestrian underpass in his honor is a beautiful and touching way to honor his enduring legacy.”

MCDOT had also received the ‘Award of Excellence’ from the Maryland Quality Initiative in June 2022 for the category of “Projects Over $5 million” for the MD 355 Crossing Project.

“MCDOT leads many large-scale construction projects on behalf of Montgomery County,” said MCDOT Director Chris Conklin. “This infrastructure has provided safe access to Ride On buses and Metro and has made the area safer for pedestrians in a very busy transportation district.”

View a video on the construction project here. Additional details on the project can be found online here.

For information on MCDOT programs and services visit montgomerycountymd.gov/mcdot, follow @MCDOTNow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to MCDOT’s “Go Montgomery!” newsletter.

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Release ID: 23-076
Media Contact: Emily DeTitta, 240-372-2282