Bottlenecks Near NIH Created by Perfect Traffic Storm

BETHESDA, Md. - "Traffic is driving me crazy from Germantown to NIH, coming south in the morning," writes Ed from Germantown in an e-mail to WTOP.

"Every morning I have a 40-minute wait from the 270 split to the Bethesda exit (south) to the Jones Bridge Road just past the NIH entrance on 355 south," writes Sharon.

After getting several listener e-mails, WTOP decided to check out a recurring complaint that was coming in, namely the slowdown that happens as employees turn into the secured entrance at the National Institutes of Health.

You could call it a perfect traffic storm, but it's not an increase in security at NIH.

"There's not been an increase in the NIH security posture," says Tom Hayden, director of the Division of Travel and Transportation Services at NIH. "We're still operating at our standard levels."

NIH did increase security checks after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But Hayden tells WTOP that perfect storm that creates the bottlenecks that are so annoying now is a combination of National Naval Medical Center traffic, NIH traffic, everybody else going to work and construction projects that have included repaving and new traffic lights along Rockville Pike.

He says between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. there's a thrust of traffic onto National Naval Medical Center's campus, then NIH workers start streaming into work between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30. And, of course, there's everybody else driving down Rockville Pike.

"I think it's just a compilation of all those vehicles that are coming down. It's kind of a staggered type of rush hour."

The repaving of a segment of Rockville Pike just north of Cedar Lane to Wilson Drive made the bottlenecks even more unbearable.

Additionally, the State Highway Administration is redoing a traffic signal at Wilson Drive. Work includes new lights and a crosswalk across Rockville Pike that will tie into the National Naval Medical Center.

Don't look for the Rockville Pike choke points to end, at least not for a while.

Hayden does say that a new visitors' center slated to open in mid- to late-2008 should "alleviate a lot of traffic issues at South Drive."

When that center opens, there could be a little confusion because "those vehicles that don't need to come on to the campus will be able to park in a garage outside the gate," Hayden says.

NIH visitors will be shuttled by bus and screened internally as pedestrians.

The long-term plan, he says, calls for the widening the South Drive entrance and making the area safer for pedestrians.

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)