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Construction is about to begin on a stretch of pavement that will close a 300-foot gap on Locbury Drive in Germantown that some people cite as a major factor contributing to illegal dumping on an adjacent wetland.

The new stretch of road just north of Town Center should be open in two months. Construction on the $315,000 project is expected to begin in about two weeks, said Tom Pogue, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. Pogue said both of the existing segments of Locbury will remain open during construction.

The construction site is at the northern end of an urban park behind the Germantown Library and BlackRock Center for the Arts. Volunteers have periodically cleaned up debris dumped in the park, much of which is a wetland. On Monday, a dozen shopping carts were in a pond next to construction equipment on Locbury Drive.

Marilyn Balcombe, president and CEO of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce, said completing Locbury Drive will divert some traffic from congested streets in Town Center.

"It can be policed more easily," Balcombe said. "It will not be a dead-end street, so hopefully there will not be people dumping their stuff there."

Balcombe said the county should have completed the project four or five years ago, but it "got kind of caught in red tape … In my opinion, it was delayed because it was never on anybody's radar screen," she said.

Pogue denied the county had neglected Locbury Drive. The project had to wait until the library was finished in spring 2007, he said.

"We identified certain other projects near the library that needed to be done but those projects were competing with projects throughout the county, so the earliest we could get it scheduled and funded was this fiscal year," he said. "It's being built as quickly as we can do it. It should be completed this year."

County plans call for the park to receive extensive improvements in spring 2010, including a boardwalk, interpretive trails, signage, benches and a lawn.