Traffic Alert: Lane Shifts on Rockville Pike Start Wednesday

Plan for delays starting Wednesday morning as State Highway Administration workers resurface traffic lanes on Rockville Pike (MD 355) to prepare for work on the highway near the Cedar Lane/West Cedar Lane intersection in Bethesda.

Weather permitting, all work related to the repaving and traffic shift should be complete by 5 a.m. Aug. 21.

Starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday, crews will resurface all lanes of northbound MD 355 within the project limits. To complete the repaving, traffic will be shifted from the left side of northbound Rockville Pike to the right side of the road, while maintaining three through lanes. All work will be complete and all traffic lanes will reopen no later than 3 p.m. each day.

The resurfacing work is needed prior to a traffic shift along Rockville Pike that will take place next week, weather permitting, for ongoing underground culvert work and road widening work.

Additionally, to complete next week’s traffic shift, beginning Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. crews will be:

• Extending the southbound Rockville Pike left-turn lane to Cedar Lane;
• Adding a dedicated right turn lane from southbound Rockville Pike to West Cedar Lane;
• Shifting traffic on Cedar Lane from the right to the left starting at Parkhill Drive to create a pattern of a shared right/through lane and two dedicated left turn lanes and;
• Shifting traffic to the right on West Cedar Lane to create a pattern of two dedicated left turn lanes, a single through lane and a dedicated right-turn lane.

The left-turn restriction from northbound Rockville Pike onto West Cedar Lane that began earlier this year remains in effect through the end of the project next year. Drivers should plan ahead and allow extra commute time in this busy area through all phases of construction.