A three-floor escalator is part of the library's design (Courtesy of The Lukmire Partnership, Inc.)

Update: TBD on TV's Kathy Park filed this video report on the groundbreaking:

Groundbreaking week has begun, and not just in D.C. 

At 10 a.m., officials will be out in Silver Spring to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new library at Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street. Site-clearing will take ten months and then construction will last another two years.

Last week, I reported that planners will have to scale back the original design to bring the $32 million project within budget. But one feature that Department of General Services director David Dise said will remain is a three-story escalator that many Silver Spring residents have said they want.

This escalator, which will cost somewhere between $750,000 to $1 million, will only be the second escalator in a county-owned building. The other is a one-floor escalator in the county’s judicial center in Rockville, and it’s broken down 46 percent of the time.

Dise said escalators breaking down “just happens,” since they run constantly.

“I’m telling you right now it’s going to break down,” Dise told residents last week.