Skip to main content

MDOT hosts meeting on University Blvd. bike lane project

The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration is hosting a virtual presentation Thursday so residents in Montgomery County can learn more about the shared streets pilot project coming to University Boulevard in Wheaton.

The program will temporarily repurpose one travel lane in each direction as bike lanes between Amherst Avenue and Arcola Avenue. It’s slated to run until late fall this year, with work on the project scheduled to begin later in the spring.

MDOT SHA’s meeting is scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. People can join online through MS Teams.

Other aspects of the program include the following:

  • Reducing the number of vehicular through-lanes from three lanes to two lanes on westbound and eastbound Md. 193;
  • Repurposing travel lanes adjacent to the curbs on westbound and eastbound Md. 193 for use by bicyclists;
  • Modifying the lane assignments on the Arcola Avenue approach to Md. 193 to connect bicyclists to the Md. 193 interim bike lanes;
  • Installing vertical delineators (flexible posts) to separate travel lanes from bike lanes;
  • Installing signing and striping within the project.

More information is available online.

Fentanyl seizures plummet as Trump administration shifts focus to immigration

WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.  Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report. “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.
Read Next Story