Father Hurley Blvd. Extension Opens Monday

A longer Father Hurley Boulevard will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday in west Germantown. 

The road was widened and was extended roughly 1.2-miles from its prior end near Wisteria Drive to Germantown Road (Md. 118), with a bridge that connects west Germantown neighborhoods once split by a seam of railroad tracks.

Monday’s guests include Father Leonard Hurley— the man the road is named after —as well as Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, Germantown’s County Council representative Craig Rice, Beverley Magda, former President of the Germantown Alliance, and Marilyn Balcombe, president of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce.

The road expansion fits into the grander scheme of the Corridor Cities Transitway, an elaborate project that intends, at least in part, to ease the traffic congestion that complicates how Upcounty residents travel to work and to area businesses.

Prior to the expansion, people who lived on the south side of the tracks and wanted to access the northern side of Father Hurley Boulevard had to use Md. 118 to bypass the tracks — often going well out of their way to do so.

“There is always a major backup on 118 for people turning left on Wisteria,” Balcombe said.

A longer Father Hurley Boulevard would better connect people to Germantown’s Town Center and the so-called “I-270 employment corridor," the commercial buildings on either side of Interstate 270, from Middlebrook Road to north of Father Hurley, Balcombe said.

The extended road would also improve access for emergency vehicles and improve traffic, according to county records.

Work on Father Hurley Boulevard began January 2010, but the timeframe was extended three to four months beyond the initial time frame due to record winter storms, said Montgomery County spokeswoman Bonnie Ayers.

Funds for the $10.9 million project came from the county’s capital budget, Ayers said.