The Silver Spring Penguin » Transportation

Snow piles, potholes linger in storm’s wake

Jennifer Deseo — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:16:42 +0000

The snowpocalypse left a nasty taste on the palettes of some, including council member Valerie Ervin. She wants to know why the county's volunteer center wasn't dispatched to help shovel sidewalks, and why downcounty streets weren't plowed sooner.

New ped path bisects South Silver Spring block

Jennifer Deseo — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:43:18 +0000

County officials and residents last Friday celebrated the opening of a new roadway and pedestrian path connecting two South Silver Spring streets.

Storm is over, but snow lingers in Silver Spring

Jennifer Deseo — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:11:28 +0000

The snow dumped by this weekend's gangbuster storm is off the main roadways, though residential streets could use a touch-up, the county's transportation department reported Tuesday.

State must address downtown’s ped-safety woes: advisory board chairman

Jennifer Deseo — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:32:56 +0000

Maryland's highway administration must take more responsibility for improving pedestrian safety in Silver Spring's central business district, the chairman of Silver Spring's citizens advisory board demanded Monday night.

Blasting schedule set for Silver Spring transit center site

Jennifer Deseo — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:11:29 +0000

After endless digging and more digging, construction crews at downtown Silver Spring's transit center site will begin blasting at bedrock later this month, county reps announced.

Ped-safety improvements bungled by bureaucracy, county rep claims

Jennifer Deseo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:01:11 +0000

Police investigators are still piecing together movements that led to last month's fatal car-on-pedestrian collision on 16th St, but one thing is known for sure: The collision scene had been on the county's radar as a dangerous pedestrian crossing for at least a few months.

Purple Line could pose problem for Bonifant St bar

Jennifer Deseo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:00:59 +0000

Bonifant Street retailers and restaurateurs don't want Purple Line tracks to impede automobile access on that road. One business -- the Quarry House Tavern at the corner of Bonifant and Georgia Avenue -- is particularly worried.

Transit-center construction included contamination cleanup, county official confesses

Jennifer Deseo — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:32:28 +0000

Here’s the good news: Some of the construction work at Silver Spring’s transit-center site is cooking with oil. The bad news: It had also been cooking with nasty chemicals in the soil.

Crews at the Colesville Road site removed soil tainted with unspecified petrochemicals as part of their excavation work, David Dise, director of the county's general services department, told The Penguin at Saturday's library book fest. Peg that petrol on a fuel storage facility that Dise said was on that site back in the day.

Circuit spasm set up Red Line crash, feds find

Jennifer Deseo — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:28:03 +0000

A twitchy circuit in Metro's automated speed controls set up conditions for June's deadly collision between two Red Line trains, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday.

So you’ve got a cramped Metro system. Now what?

Jennifer Deseo — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:06:32 +0000

PART TWO -- Metro's Red Line could be swamped with rush-hour commuters by 2025, even sooner for the rail system's other lines, one transportation expert warned. So what the hell is a transit authority supposed to do?