'It's pretty obvious what they want to do'

Go to www.Mapquest.com, punch in Seven Locks Road, Bethesda MD, and click on the "Aerial Image" icon at the top right corner of the website.

That will give you a satellite photo of Seven Locks Road. Zoom in, and it's easy to see why central planners would want to clear away the easements on either side of Seven Locks to make room for a future four-lane highway.

"It's pretty obvious what they want to do," says a Seven Locks resident who attended the October 25 meeting.

"They want to widen Seven Locks as they have already done at its northern end by the Wootton Parkway and at the Democracy Boulevard intersection.

"It's the Kendale scandal all over again. They want to sneak this on us under the guise of nice, homey sidewalks and bike trails."

Scroll down the Seven Locks satellite image until you see a large, tan roof with a courtyard in the middle and a baseball diamond to the left. That's Seven Locks Elementary School, where the widening project would end. The cross street is Bradley Boulevard.

Now look at Seven Locks to the south of Bradley. It becomes a funnel for southbound (morning commuter) traffic. Unwise for central planners to clog a newly widened four-lane road south of that busy intersection. With that handy dump onto River Road and the Beltway just a mile and a half south, the next widening project is obvious.