St. Mary’s County will hold its second community meeting on the FDR Boulevard Extension Planning Study on Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Lexington Park Library, with a formal presentation starting at 5:30 p.m. — the latest step in a road project that has been under construction, in one phase or another, for nearly a decade.
The study focuses on extending FDR Boulevard from Pegg Road, at the main gate of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, to MD 246 (Great Mills Road), following concepts laid out in the Lexington Park Development District Master Plan. The county says the goal is to improve traffic flow to the base, reduce emissions, shorten travel times, and cut down on congestion and accidents.
FDR Boulevard’s history stretches back well before this current planning effort. When the first 0.72-mile segment opened in December 2018 — running from First Colony Boulevard to a roundabout at Old Rolling Road — then-Commissioner Todd Morgan called it “the first step in achieving a county-constructed road in over 25 years.” The county extended the road again in June 2020, connecting Monterey Lane to Kinnegad Drive. By 2023, construction had reached the Buck Hewitt Road intersection, where crews built a roundabout and a new bridge over the St. Mary’s River as part of connecting the boulevard toward MD 235. According to the county’s project page, Phase 2 — between Great Mills Road and South Shangri La Drive — is now complete, and Phase 3 construction was ongoing as of fall 2026.
The stretch now under study, from Pegg Road to Great Mills Road, represents the section still needed to complete the corridor the county has been building toward since 2018: a continuous route from MD 4 to the gates of Pax River intended to give residents an alternative to MD 235, which County Commissioner President Randy Guy has called “the busiest and most heavily traveled corridor in our community.” The state has taken notice as well — in its fiscal year 2027 funding priority letter to the Maryland Department of Transportation, the county ranked a signalized intersection at MD 235 and FDR Boulevard as its fourth-highest infrastructure priority statewide, saying it “would positively affect the MD 235 and MD 4 intersection level of service.”
The first community planning meeting on this extension study was held May 26, 2026, and a summary of that meeting’s public comments, along with results from an online survey, is available on the project website. The county’s Public Engagement Plan, available in both English and Spanish, outlines additional ways residents can stay involved as the study continues.
Questions about the project can be directed to St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works & Transportation Project Manager Allen Settle at Allen.Settle@stmaryscountymd.gov or (301) 475-4200, ext. 3525. Residents needing accommodations such as language translation or accessibility support should contact Settle at least two business days before the meeting; the Lexington Park Library meeting location is physically accessible.
