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Plans for a second Metro entrance at Bethesda Station will be on view at a public information session Thursday.

The $60 million project would use high-speed elevators to connect riders at the corner of Elm Street and Wisconsin Avenue to the Red Line Metro station, as well as the proposed Purple Line station. The information session is intended to give residents a chance to view plans that were presented to the Montgomery County Council in the fall.

"It's an open house," said Glenn Orlin, a deputy staff director for the county council. "They're trying to publicize it."

The project is being designed and will be built by the Maryland Transit Administration. The county will foot the bill, about $60 million.

Minor changes have been made to the design since it was presented to council members, said Matt Fenton, the project's manager for MTA.

For example, Fenton said, the original design used two sets of elevators to connect the street level to the Purple Line and the Purple Line to the Red Line mezzanine. Passengers destined for Metro's Red Line would have had to exit at the Purple Line level and continue down in a different elevator. The new design would allow at least one elevator to travel from street level to the Red Line, making a stop at the Purple Line, Fenton said.

Ben Ross, a Bethesda resident and a vice president of the Action Committee for Transit, a group that promotes public transit projects, said he looks forward to seeing the station's design.

Ross said that while he is excited about the new entrance, he wishes the county would move forward with the project more quickly.

The project is included in the county's 2011-2016 Capital Improvements Program and calls for construction to coincide with the Purple Line.

Ross said the new entrance would be a community asset regardless of whether it connects to the Purple Line.

"If we're finally going to have the design ready, let's just build it," said Ross.

Fenton said the final design could be ready as early as this fall.

IF YOU GO

A public meeting about the planned south entrance to the Bethesda Metro Station will take place 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda.

sgantz@gazette.net