Civilian, military and medical leaders gathered in Bethesda, Maryland on Friday to celebrate the completion of a project that will make it easier for people to cross Rockville Pike between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The long-planned “MD 355 Crossing Project” connects the two medical centers using a pedestrian walkway below the roadway. It also makes it easier for those working at the campuses to get to the Medical Center Metro station further below the surface via high-speed elevators.
The project, which took about five years, also included improvements to the surface roads, walkways and traffic signals.
The work will help those working at the two largest employers in Montgomery County cross the busy roadway. According to statistics predating the COVID-19 pandemic, the metro station accommodated 11,000 riders each day while about 7,000 pedestrians crossed the road.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said the project’s completion will be good news for pedestrians, as the intersection had been one of the county’s most dangerous “for generations,” and the “employees and visitors to these critical institutions deserved better.”
The pedestrian underpass will be named in honor of the late Philip Richard Alperson, a Montgomery County employee. Alperson died in 2020.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Alperson was “an eternal optimist … (who) believed government had the ability to deliver meaningful results for our community and nation.”
The project cost more than $100 million and was funded primarily by the Department of Defense. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation managed it.
