The Capital Crescent Trail Through Bethesda Is a Street Route Now

For about fifteen years, the plan for the Capital Crescent Trail in downtown Bethesda was a tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue. That plan still exists on paper. Montgomery County's capital budget lists the Capital Crescent Trail Tunnel at "Final Design Stage," with all $82.5 million of its cost placed in the column marked "Beyond 6 Years." Meanwhile the county has been building something else. It is a chain of protected bikeways, a signalized crossing, a new path along 47th Street and a rebuilt Elm Street Park, and together they are now the trail through town.

Since 2017, the trail east of downtown has been closed for Purple Line construction, and the street route has filled the gap through town. This fall, with the 47th Street path nearly done and Elm Street Park under construction, that route is closer to finished than it has been at any point since the closure began.

From Ourisman Plaza to Elm Street, block by block

According to the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, the route leaves the trailhead at Ourisman Plaza and runs in four legs:

1. Bethesda Avenue, north side. A protected bikeway runs east from Woodmont Avenue to Wisconsin Avenue.
2. Wisconsin Avenue. A signalized bikeway crossing takes you over at street level.
3. Willow Lane, south side. The bikeway continues east toward 47th Street.
4. 47th Street. A new 10-foot shared-use path runs along 47th to the Elm Street Park promenade at Elm Street.

The first three legs make up what MCDOT calls Phase 1 of the Bethesda bikeway program, which the county lists as completed in late 2022. The Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail has said the protected path and signalized crossings feel safe for less experienced bicyclists.

The 47th Street leg is the newest. On August 6, 2026, MCDOT photographed finished path at Willow Lane and 47th, northbound along 47th, and at 47th and Elm, along with a new parking area for Capital Bikeshare e-bikes. In its September 16 update, Montgomery Parks put this phase at about 90 percent complete, with completion expected in October 2026.

Walkers have a separate detour to follow. The Purple Line project has closed pedestrian access between Wisconsin Avenue and Elm Street. The posted detour uses the Wisconsin Avenue crossings at Elm Street and Waverly Street, goes west on Hampden Lane to Woodmont Avenue, and then onto Elm Street.

Why the tunnel stopped being the plan

The surface route was one of two options from the start. Earlier studies looked at a tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue and at a surface route through Elm Street Park. In October 2021, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved a Mandatory Referral application for each option, including concept plans for the park renovation. Montgomery Parks says that because tunnel funding "was delayed beyond the current funding cycle," MCDOT chose to build the surface route.

The tunnel's cost explains most of the delay. In January, Bethesda Magazine reported that the County Council twice restored tunnel funding after the county executive left it out of earlier budgets. A third effort fell short when the estimate rose from $55 million to more than $82 million. On the current capital sheet, every cost line falls outside the six-year window.

Officials have not given up on it. Councilmember Evan Glass told Bethesda Magazine, "I remain committed to building the Capital Crescent Trail tunnel." Councilmember Andrew Friedson, whose district includes the tunnel site, told the magazine, "I continue to believe that a commitment made should be a commitment kept." In the same article, the magazine noted that without the tunnel, trail users have to deal with surface traffic to cross Wisconsin Avenue between Bethesda Avenue and Willow Lane.

The trail's mile markers reflect the shift. In a March 2025 memo, the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail pointed out that the existing wooden mileposts count distance from the old CSX branch point in Lyttonsville and assume the trail runs through the Wisconsin Avenue tunnel. The memo adds that "for the foreseeable future, the longer Bethesda surface trail will substitute for the tunnel passageway," and calls for a new survey and consistent signage at junctions. So the posted distances describe a route nobody can ride.

What Elm Street Park becomes

Because the surface route is the long-term plan, Elm Street Park is being redesigned around it. The two-acre park at 4600 Elm Street sits within the Town of Chevy Chase but is maintained by Montgomery Parks. The rerouted trail will run north through the park toward the future Purple Line Trail, which means rebuilding the park's northern end and the Elm Street promenade. MCDOT is paying for both the trail and the park work.

Construction on this third phase began in September 2026 and is scheduled to finish in 2027. The final design includes:

• Play area for ages 2 to 12 with an enclosed harness swing, a low-floor cone spinner, in-ground bouncers, a treehouse with a 4-foot slide, and a communication board
• Play area for ages 5 to 12 with climbing towers of 8 and 15 feet, two slides, a rope tunnel, and hammocks
• Fitness zone for ages 13 and up with a dip station, calisthenics rack, push-up bars, and a balance piece called the "Ocean Ring"
• Rebuilt promenade with new paving, lighting, a drinking fountain, and infrastructure for community events
• Trail safety features, including wide crossings with clear sight lines and fencing between the play areas and the trail

Both playgrounds will sit on a flat, cork-based poured surface. That came from the fall 2024 community survey, which asked for inclusive play, better safety where the trail meets the park, and protection of the mature trees in the southern lawn.

Next door, Bethesda Market Park would turn two parking lots into green space adjoining Elm Street Park, for about four acres combined. As of Montgomery Parks' August 18 update, the project was still in preliminary planning, and dates for both design and construction were listed as TBD.

East of Elm Street, the trail is still closed

The 47th Street path is meant to connect to the rebuilt trail between Bethesda and Silver Spring, and that trail is still not open. The Georgetown Branch interim trail has been closed since September 2017. The Maryland Transit Administration's closure listing still runs through December 2026. That December date marks the end of the posted closure window, and the MTA has not announced a reopening day.

The timeline has already slipped once. In January, Bethesda Magazine reported an MTA report to state legislators that moved the trail's projected completion to summer 2026, citing grading, drainage and paving changes. The same report said the MTA would work with the county to open "the entire trail or portions of the trail as early as is feasible." Summer has now passed. In its September 23 newsletter, the advocacy group Purple Line NOW still described the stretch near Talbot Street in Silver Spring as a construction zone and gave no opening date.

When the trail does reopen, it will be different from the gravel path many people remember. The MTA has said it will be a 12-foot paved path with 2-foot buffers, and the Purple Line's senior project director has said it will include trail bridges over Connecticut Avenue and Colesville Road and underpasses at Jones Mill Road, 16th Street and Spring Street. State Delegate Marc Korman told Bethesda Magazine he could not imagine state transit leaders "not opening the trail prior to [passenger] service on the Purple Line." On the Purple Line's project timeline, passenger service begins in Winter 2027.

Closer to home, construction on the Bethesda station continues under Elm Street. Crews are building the cavern, the shaft and the lobby connection, with shifts that can run overnight and on weekends. Test trains are running between the Lyttonsville maintenance facility and Bethesda Station, mostly between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., though they can move at any hour. The station will be the line's western terminus, with street access at Elm Street or Woodmont Plaza and a connection to Metro's Red Line. Until the Wisconsin Avenue tunnel moves into the six-year budget, the signalized crossing at Bethesda Avenue and Willow Lane is how the trail gets across Wisconsin Avenue.

If you would like to talk through what the trail, the park and the Purple Line station mean for a particular block near Elm Street, the Nancy Taylor Bubes Team would be glad to arrange a private consultation.