Why the Capital Crescent Trail Will Cross Downtown Bethesda at Street Level for Years

In early August, Montgomery County's transportation department photographed a finished 10-foot shared-use path running north along 47th Street. It goes from Willow Avenue to the Elm Street Park Promenade, and a new Cap e-Bike parking spot sits beside it. Most captions on the project page are dated 8/6/26, and one shot at Willow and 47th is dated 6/8/26.

The County describes the path as a link between the bike lanes at Bethesda and Wisconsin avenues and "ultimately the northbound portion of the Capital Crescent Trail" now being built alongside the Purple Line. That northbound trail toward Silver Spring is still closed. The trail's old route under Wisconsin Avenue isn't coming back on any schedule the County has published. So the street-level crossing through downtown, which many Bethesda trail users have treated as a stopgap since 2017, is the route the trail will use for years to come.

Three dates in circulation for the same trail

Ask when the Bethesda-to-Silver Spring segment reopens and you'll get a different answer depending on which page you check.

The most recent of the three comes from a Montgomery County Council Transportation and Environment Committee meeting. WTOP reported on Oct. 5, 2026 that the Capital Crescent Trail was 74% complete and that its first leg, Elm Street to Connecticut Avenue, was expected to open by spring 2027. No reopening day or ribbon-cutting date has been announced. The fall 2026 wording on the Coalition's site goes back to May 2024. That was when the Maryland Department of Transportation said the trail would open in fall 2026, more than a year ahead of Purple Line passenger service. The December 2026 end date on the Purple Line closure card is still posted. It reads best as the closure period on file, not as an opening forecast.

What the spring leg opens, and what stays fenced

The first leg runs from Elm Street Park to Connecticut Avenue. When the whole route is done, the Coalition says, the trail will be a 12-foot paved path with 2-foot buffers running all the way into downtown Silver Spring. It will cross Connecticut Avenue and Colesville Road on trail bridges and pass under Jones Mill Road, 16th Street and Spring Street. The old surface was a mix of gravel and dirt, so the rebuilt segment will be a different trail from the one that closed in September 2017.

East of Connecticut Avenue, crews are still at work this fall. The Purple Line updates page says trail construction between Elm Street Park and Rock Creek Park continues through fall 2026. Work is also underway on the reach from Rock Creek to Talbot Avenue and from Talbot Avenue to the Silver Spring Transit Center. The Sept. 23 Purple Line NOW newsletter said the stretch from the Talbot bridge toward the Silver Spring Metro was still a construction zone. It also said the Spring Street Bridge had no firm reopening date.

Light-rail vehicles are now running test trips on dedicated track between the Lyttonsville operations facility and Bethesda Station. According to the Purple Line team, the cars can move at any time of day or night, and the public is asked to stay outside project limits. The Rock Creek connection should also get simpler once the full trail opens. The new trail bridge over Rock Creek sits about a third as high as the old trestle, so one switchback can reach the Rock Creek Trail. Before, the connection was a mostly unsigned walk of six or more blocks on neighborhood streets.

The tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue

When the Bethesda leg opens, it will end at Elm Street Park, not under Wisconsin Avenue. The Purple Line's Bethesda terminus station now fills the old trail tunnel completely. The Coalition says the state transportation department told Montgomery County conclusively that a trail tunnel can't fit in that space.

The County has a replacement tunnel project on its books. Its capital project page lists the tunnel as active and in final design. The published schedule puts bid documents, utility relocation and construction beyond six years out. That page was last modified in January 2026, and no newer tunnel schedule has been found.

Cost has been a problem for years. The Coalition cites a January 2023 Washington Post report that the estimated cost had risen from $55 million to $82.5 million. The Coalition also says that as time passes and costs climb, a replacement tunnel looks less and less likely to be built. It floats one possibility, which it labels as its own speculation: part of the tunnel could be built if a building on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue near Elm Street is ever redeveloped. That's how the stretch up to the west edge of Wisconsin Avenue was built, as part of the deal for The Wilson and The Elm.

That makes the August path on 47th Street the long-term link between the trail's two halves, and the most recent County work in downtown Bethesda.

Crossing downtown this fall

The surface route between the two trail halves has been built in phases. Phase I, finished around the end of 2021, covers the protected bike lanes from the Bethesda Avenue trailhead to and across Wisconsin Avenue. The Coalition describes bicycle crossing lanes and signals at Bethesda and Woodmont avenues and at Wisconsin Avenue. The County's Capital Crescent Surface Trail Phase 2 is the 47th Street path, now complete. Heading north from the Georgetown side, here is the route as the County and the Coalition describe it:

1. Start at Ourisman Plaza on Bethesda Avenue, the trail's current trailhead.
2. Follow the Capital Crescent Surface Trail's protected lanes across Woodmont and Wisconsin avenues.
3. Pick up the 10-foot path on 47th Street at Willow Avenue and ride north to the Elm Street Park Promenade at Elm Street.
4. Stop at Elm Street Park, where the rebuilt trail from Silver Spring will arrive.

People walking from the Wisconsin Avenue side have a separate detour. The pedestrian connection between Wisconsin Avenue and Elm Street has been closed since November 14, 2022. The posted detour crosses Wisconsin at Elm Street and at Waverly Street, then uses Hampden Lane and Woodmont Avenue to reach Elm Street.

That detour now passes some of this year's new openings. The Food Market began service June 29 at Hampden House on Hampden Lane. Sushi Masato, at 4914 Hampden Lane, planned a soft opening for Aug. 12.

The trail toward Georgetown is unchanged. It is a paved rail-trail from Bethesda to Georgetown, with five bridges and the Dalecarlia Tunnel. Only two road crossings are at street level, at Little Falls Parkway and Dorset Avenue. Montgomery Parks describes the full trail as 11 miles from Georgetown to Silver Spring, built on an abandoned railroad right-of-way. Right now, only the Georgetown side of that 11 miles is open.

Where the Purple Line date fits

The trail was originally supposed to open when Purple Line passenger service began. The May 2024 decision separated the two timelines. Even with the spring 2027 estimate, the trail's first leg is still scheduled to open ahead of the trains.

At the same Oct. 5 committee meeting, Chair Evan Glass asked when the line would open. MTA's Ray Biggs replied:

"The contractual date does remain December 30, 2027."

Glass then asked whether April 2028 was more realistic. Biggs said the final date depends on safety testing, and he called the process "dynamic." At that meeting, officials put overall Purple Line construction at 92% complete. The trail, at 74%, is further behind.

Once the full trail reaches the Silver Spring Transit Center, it will connect directly to the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Montgomery Parks lists Elm Street Park, the Capital Crescent Civic Green and the Capital Crescent Trail together on its downtown Bethesda projects page, last updated Aug. 18, 2026. The trail from Silver Spring will end at those parks. To continue south toward Georgetown, users will cross downtown on 47th Street and the signals at Wisconsin Avenue.

Until a new tunnel is funded and built, street level is how the Capital Crescent Trail crosses downtown Bethesda. Infrastructure timelines like this one also come up when people weigh where to live, and Gayhardt Partners is glad to walk you through what each Bethesda project stage means on the ground. Let's Connect.