2 Lanes Of Little Falls Parkway In Bethesda To Become Park Space

BETHESDA, MD — Montgomery County started work on Monday to transform 1.3 miles of Little Falls Parkway in Bethesda into a park as part of the second phase of a pilot project.

The project will repurpose two lanes of the parkway between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue. The new park will add recreational space in an area adjacent to the Capital Crescent Trail, one of the most popular trails in the Montgomery County Parks system.

“We are excited to build on the success of our Open Parkways Program and repurpose traffic lanes to provide additional recreational space for park users,” Mike Riley, director of Montgomery Parks, said in a statement.

Riley said Montgomery Parks believes that phase two of the pilot project will show that Little Falls Parkway can continue to function well for motorists with two lanes “while allowing bicyclists, pedestrians and other park users to enjoy a new linear park, unlike anything that exists in our park system today.”

The planned park will be located on a portion of Little Falls Parkway that was previously part of Montgomery Parks’ Open Parkways program between River Road and Arlington Road. That portion of the Open Parkways program was suspended to study the operational effects of permanently reducing a segment of the parkway from four lanes to two.

This past summer, Montgomery Parks and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission reduced Little Falls Parkway between Dorset Avenue and Arlington Road from four lanes to two lanes with a median divide and large shoulders as part of phase one of the pilot project.

Montgomery Parks and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation independently completed several rounds of traffic counts during phase one of the pilot and determined that Little Falls Parkway functioned well with two lanes, allowing the project to proceed to phase two.

During phase two, both directions of the remaining two lanes of traffic will move onto the east side of the median between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue, currently used for northbound traffic. This realignment will eliminate vehicles in the current southbound lanes, while maintaining the other two lanes of Little Falls Parkway for vehicles.

In spring 2023, Montgomery Parks plans to launch a temporary linear park in the southbound lanes between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue, with space for walking and biking as well as programming that includes games, events, and tables with seating. Once the temporary linear park is in place, the public will have an opportunity to provide feedback on phase two of the Little Falls Parkway Linear Park pilot project.

The Open Parkways program began at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide more outdoor space for recreation and exercise by closing portions of three parkways to vehicles on weekends. The other two open parkways in Montgomery County, Sligo Creek Parkway and Beach Drive, will not be affected by the Little Falls Parkway pilot program.