Areas · Montgomery County
Reels and spools in Rockville: the county seat on Rockville Pike
ROCKVILLE, Md. — Rockville, ZIPs 20850 to 20853 with Derwood in 20855, is Montgomery County's seat and one of its busiest places for construction, with apartments, offices and labs along Rockville Pike and I-270. The desk picks up reels from its sites and garages and delivers spools across the city.
From the reel desk · Checked 9 November 2026
Schematic line map, not to survey: Rockville marked, with I-270 drawn heavier. The Potomac, the Anacostia, the District line and the Beltway are drawn for bearings.
Fact box: Rockville
- ZIPs
- 20850, 20851, 20852, 20853, 20855
- Main roads
- I-270, Rockville Pike (Route 355), MD-28, MD-586 (Veirs Mill Road)
- Transit
- Twinbrook, Rockville and Shady Grove Metro (Red Line); MARC at Rockville
- Utility
- Pepco
Building along the Pike
Rockville Pike, Route 355, runs from Bethesda through North Bethesda and Rockville toward Gaithersburg, and much of it has been rebuilt from strip shopping into apartments, offices and mixed-use blocks around the Twinbrook, White Flint (North Bethesda) and Rockville stations. Rockville’s town centre has been rebuilt too. Off the Pike, office parks along I-270 hold research and technology firms.
What leaves a Rockville site
Mid-rise and high-rise residential buildings use building wire on 23 to 30 inch reels, many of them plywood, and copper feeders on larger reels for risers and switchgear. Labs and offices add feeders, controls and data cable. A close-out batch is usually a mix of sizes and builds, often a few dozen reels on a large building.
Garages and service drives
Rockville sites usually stage material in a parking garage or a service drive. The desk needs:
- Clearance height of the garage entrance and the level where the reels are.
- Hours the site allows deliveries and pickups.
- Equipment: a forklift, a pallet jack, or only people.
Reels under 36 inches can be rolled to the truck by hand; reels over 42 inches need equipment or a ramp.
The county seat
Rockville is also home to county government buildings, the county courthouse, and a Montgomery College campus. Public buildings are renovated and extended over time, and their electrical contractors are steady sources of reels.
Buyers
Rockville buyers ask for table and garden reels, with a lot of interest in 30 to 36 inch reels for patios. Small electrical contractors in the area ask for working reels to wind their own cable.
Utility work
Pepco serves most of Montgomery, according to Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel. Distribution work for the new buildings along the Pike, and undergrounding, add aluminium and secondary cable reels.
Getting here
I-270 runs along the west of the city; Rockville Pike through the middle; Veirs Mill Road (MD-586) runs southeast to Wheaton; MD-28 runs east and west. Derwood and Shady Grove are at the north end.
Sending a request from Rockville
- Count and measure. Count the reels and measure the largest flange edge to edge across the face. A photo with the tape in it is better than a guess.
- Check the build. Nailed lumber, plywood sheet, steel or plastic. Look for a stencil or tag naming the maker and the reel number.
- Set aside steel and tagged returnables with their serial numbers. Those go back to the maker, not to the desk.
- Say where they stand: yard, dock, garage level, alley or curb, plus clearance, gate hours, badging or escort a driver needs.
- Say what loads them: forklift, pallet jack, loader, ramp, or only people. Reels over 42 inches weigh more than 100 lb empty.
- Say how often: one time, weekly, monthly or at each job close-out.
- Buying instead? Give the flange and height you want, how many, and how the reel gets from the truck to where it will sit.
- No form handy? Email info@dcwoodenspools.com with the same details and a few photos.
Reels you are likely to have
| Reel | Build | Flange | Traverse | Drum | Lb | Usually carries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-5 | Nailed wood | 23 | 17 | 12 | 34 | Copper building wire, grounding |
| A-10 | Nailed wood | 30 | 22 | 16 | 66 | Service drop, bare aluminium |
| N-24 | Nailed wood | 36 | 28 | 14 | 83 | Insulated and multiplex cable |
| A-29 | Nailed wood | 42 | 28 | 21 | 154 | Overhead conductor, feeders |
| A-38 | Nailed wood | 48 | 28 | 24 | 212 | Aluminium and ACSR, large feeders |
| A-62 | Nailed wood | 60 | 28 | 28 | 397 | Utility conductor |
| A-76 | Nailed wood | 66 | 28 | 30 | 473 | Heavy conductor |
| S-120 | Steel, returnable | 84 | 36 | 42 | 895 | Transmission and medium voltage |
Other makers' reels differ by an inch or two. All flange sizes · How to measure
Questions the desk gets
What does the desk need for a garage pickup in Rockville?
The entrance clearance, the level where the reels are, the site hours and whether a forklift is available.
How many reels does a Rockville close-out produce?
It varies by building, from a handful on a refit to a few dozen on a large new building. Send a count.
Sources
Each opened and read on 9 November 2026.
- Maryland Office of People's Counsel, Your Local Electricity Companies: which utility serves which Maryland counties
- Maryland Office of People's Counsel, Pepco: Pepco serves 582,000 Maryland customers in most of Montgomery and Prince George's