The Capital Crescent Trail's Chevy Chase Stretch Will Reopen First. Here's Why It's Still Fenced Off This Fall.

Between Bethesda and Connecticut Avenue, a new paved trail is already in the ground. The Maryland Transit Administration says that stretch makes up about one-third of the trail's total paved area. Crews are now working on retaining walls, grading, paving, fencing and landscaping along the rest of the route. Even so, the paved part belongs to the construction trucks. MTA's own FAQ says the trail is being used for construction vehicle access and that "pedestrian and bicycle use is prohibited."

On Oct. 5, 2026, MTA officials briefed the Montgomery County Council's Transportation and Environment Committee and gave the most specific date yet. WTOP reported that the Capital Crescent Trail is 74% complete. It also reported that one leg, from Elm Street to Connecticut Avenue, is expected to open by spring 2027. That is the Chevy Chase stretch. Unlike the dates that came before it, this one describes a trail you can walk on.

Four forecasts, four different promises

The date has moved since 2024. What it measured has changed too.

The 2024 forecast was itself a reversal. Bethesda Magazine reported in May 2024 that MDOT's spring 2026 date was a year earlier than its January 2024 update, which had said spring 2027. After two and a half years, the forecast is back where it started, and now it covers only one segment.

The January 2026 shift came with a reason. MTA told legislative leaders that the "projected completion date has been updated to summer 2026 to reflect necessary design changes for grading and drainage systems and anticipated paving timelines." By May, MDOT's status report put construction completion in fall 2026. It said continued Purple Line construction access was part of the reason. It also said winter weather had limited grading, paving and wall work. The same report added that the full trail would reopen in 2027, with phased openings possible.

Notice the wording in that report. "Construction completion" and "reopening" had become two separate milestones with two separate dates.

Why a finished trail is still a truck route

The gap between those two milestones has a reason. The trail runs beside the rail line, and crews building the Purple Line use it to get in and out. In May 2026, MTA said construction of the line itself would finish by the end of 2026. That includes station structures, Art in Transit installations, landscaping, and the train and traffic signal controls. As long as that work goes on, the trail stays a work road.

Ownership is the second step. Last fall, Maricela Cordova of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation told the County Council that MCDOT will be ready to open the trail soon after construction ends and MTA returns ownership to the county. MTA's FAQ describes the same order of steps. It says it will work with the county "to open the trail as soon as it is safe and feasible to do so."

The progress numbers show how slowly the last stretch has gone:

• March 31, 2024: 45.8% complete
• March 31, 2026: 68.4% complete, one-tenth of a point above the figure in the report's previous comparison column
• October 2026: 74% complete, per the council briefing

The trail gained about 23 points in two years. Over the same period, the Purple Line as a whole reached 92% construction completion. The trail is behind the railroad it runs beside.

Why the Chevy Chase leg goes first

The leg that opens first is the same stretch MTA describes as paved: Bethesda to Connecticut Avenue. At the Oct. 5 briefing, an official called spring 2027 the forecast opening and said it could be the start of a phased reopening. In other words, the trail will open in pieces, and the Chevy Chase segment comes first.

The new trail will be a different surface from the old one. Before the 2017 closure, the Georgetown Branch was gravel. MDOT has described its replacement as "a 12-foot paved trail with 2-foot buffers that extends all the way into downtown Silver Spring." Montgomery County's FY27 capital budget calls it a largely 12-foot-wide hard-surface path. The budget also covers connector paths, a new bridge over Connecticut Avenue, a new underpass beneath Jones Mill Road, and lighting at junctions and underpasses.

The Connecticut Avenue bridge marks the eastern end of the first leg, so it decides where the spring 2027 segment stops. The Jones Mill Road underpass is east of Connecticut, which puts it outside that first leg. Until later phases open, anyone heading toward Rock Creek and Silver Spring will still be on the detour.

The detour that runs through Chevy Chase

The official interim route between Bethesda and Silver Spring uses sidewalks and neighborhood streets. The Georgetown Branch Interim Trail closure is posted through December 2026. Going east from Bethesda, MTA's detour factsheet sends trail users through Chevy Chase this way:

1. North on Woodmont Avenue to Montgomery Avenue, then right across Wisconsin Avenue on the north-side sidewalk.
2. Left onto Pearl Street, which becomes Maryland Avenue, toward Jones Bridge Road.
3. Across Jones Bridge Road at the Glenbrook Parkway signal, then right and east on the north-side path.
4. At the Platt Ridge Drive signal, across to the south side of Jones Bridge Road, continuing east.
5. Across Connecticut Avenue, still on the sidewalk, toward Jones Mill Road.
6. Across Jones Mill Road, left toward Susanna Lane, then right onto Susanna Lane into Rock Creek Park.
7. Detour signs through the park to the exit near Freyman Drive, then on toward Silver Spring.

Riding west, the factsheet adds a turn. Cyclists headed back to Bethesda turn right off southbound Pearl Street onto Cheltenham Drive, go straight through the mini traffic circle at Tilbury Street, and continue across Wisconsin Avenue onto Norfolk Avenue. From there they turn left on Woodmont to meet the existing trail at Bethesda Avenue.

The trail toward D.C. is a separate story. The National Park Service lists the Capital Crescent Trail from the Maryland–D.C. line to the Water Street trailhead in Georgetown as open. Its page, last updated in January 2026, expects phased rehabilitation work to begin in 2027. At the Georgetown end, DC Water opened a temporary route through Georgetown Waterfront Park for cyclists on Jan. 16, 2026. Pedestrians use the riverfront path around the Potomac River Tunnel worksite.

The Bethesda end will still cross Wisconsin Avenue at street level

When the Elm Street leg opens, it will meet a Bethesda that still has no trail tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue. The old tunnel now holds the Purple Line's Bethesda terminus station. The Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail cites the state's conclusion that a trail tunnel cannot fit there. The county's replacement tunnel is in final design at an estimated $82.545 million. Its FY27 budget sheet shows no funding from FY27 through FY32 and places construction more than six years out. Right now, pedestrians at the Elm Street work zone cross Wisconsin at Elm Street and Waverly Street, then go west on Hampden Lane to Woodmont. That detour is posted through December 2026.

The connections on the west side are coming together faster. MCDOT's Capital Crescent Surface Trail Phase 2 is a 10-foot shared-use path along 47th Street from Willow Avenue to the Elm Street Park promenade. It is meant to tie into the northbound trail the Purple Line is building. County photos dated Aug. 6, 2026, show the path at 47th and Elm and at Willow and 47th as completed. The project page does not give a public opening date. Phase 3 runs through Elm Street Park to the new trail. It started in summer 2026 and is scheduled to finish in summer 2027. The county's Sept. 28 update reported site clearing and silt fencing.

The rail date is moving too

The trail's timeline depends on the rail line's, and the rail date was also open to question on Oct. 5. Committee Chair Evan Glass asked whether April 2028 was more realistic. MTA's Ray Biggs answered that "the contractual date does remain December 30, 2027." He said the final date depends on safety testing and called the process "dynamic." MTA's FAQ still says Winter 2027.

Local officials have been clear about the order they expect. Del. Marc Korman chairs the House of Delegates' Environment and Transportation Committee. Last winter he put it this way:

"I cannot imagine that the administrator of the Maryland Transit Administration or the governor would break faith with the community by not opening the trail prior to [passenger] service on the Purple Line."

The spring 2027 date for the Chevy Chase leg comes well before either rail date now under discussion. The Coalition's homepage still says the trail will tentatively reopen in fall 2026. Biggs told the council that the quickest way to get updates is the @PurplelineMD social media account.

When the Elm Street to Connecticut Avenue leg opens, the streets around its access points will feel different almost overnight. If you are weighing a home near the new trail before it opens, Donna Leanos can tell you, discreetly, which properties along that stretch are coming available, including some that never reach the open market.