First leg of ICC bike trail opens Saturday
The first leg of the bicycle path that will run alongside the partially completed Intercounty Connector will open Saturday in Montgomery County, the State Highway Administration said.
The 2.5-mile section, which will run from Needwood Road to Emory Lane with a connection to Muncaster Mill Road, is part of what will eventually be a network of 11.5 new and 3 miles of reconstructed 3d trails through the ICC corridor. The road itself is open from Georgia Avenue to Interstate 370.
The SHA said it will open more miles of trail as sections of the ICC east of Georgia Avenue are completed. The agency said the bike trails will eventually allow bicyclists to ride from the Shady Grove Metro station in Gaithersburg to the Muirkink MARC station in Laurel.
Cheryl Sparks, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, said construction of the section between Georgia Avenue and Interstate 95 is progressing well because of favorable weather for construction. She said that if good weather continues, that section could open late this year. If not, it would open early in 2012, she said.
Comments
Thanks for update but it would be much more useful if you include map and/or links showing where trail is, where access points are. - HO
COMMENT: I agree. Unfortunately, the State Highway Administration did not provide a map along with the news of the trail opening. The agency did provide a link to the ICC project web site, http://www.iccproject.com but it's not very useful for bicyclists. I talked with ICC spokesman Ray Feldmann, and he agreed that the web site was deficient in bike information and could use a separate tab for such information.
"We probably do need to give the bike trail issue a little more attention," he said. "That's something we should address sooner rather than later."
Posted by: Harvey Ollis | August 11, 2011 8:37 AM
How do you get onto the bike path from Olney/Emory Lane? Thanks. mjcosgrove@msn.com
Posted by: MJ | October 19, 2011 7:44 PM