Somewhere between Buck Hewitt Road and Peg Road, a traffic signal is about to start blinking yellow, and it is one of the last things standing between St. Mary’s County and a ribbon cutting.
At the Oct. 6 Commissioners’ meeting, Public Works and Transportation Director John Norris told the board that FDR Boulevard Phase 3B has a ribbon-cutting date already set for November. Norris said the State Highway Administration “should have that light flashing yellow by this time next week.”
What Phase 3B delivers
Phase 3B is the mile between Buck Hewitt Road and Peg Road, still under construction, Norris said. When finished it will carry two travel lanes, bike lanes, a sidewalk and the Three Notch Trail. It also includes the Peg Road signal, which Norris described as the county’s first traffic signal. The county will turn the signal over to the State Highway Administration to operate and tie into the state’s system, with the goal of avoiding backups between that light and the crossing at Route 235.
Work is still going on in the stormwater system. Norris said the county, with the county attorney’s office and the commissioners, secured an easement from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church so crews can widen and deepen a bioswale and keep stormwater on county property.
A month to learn the new turns
The flashing-yellow phase is intentional. It gives residents of the Victory Housing senior community a month to learn the new turning movements before the road fully opens. Norris said drivers leaving the community who want to head toward Coles Road will turn right and make a U-turn at the church’s gate. Whether the road opens on ribbon-cutting day depends on whether the signal is finished, he said, but the county intends to open it that day.
The question about Phase 4
Phase 4 is the proposed link from Peg Road to Great Mills Road, and it has a second community meeting Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Lexington Park Library, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Staff told commissioners the meeting is scheduled for the day before early voting begins.
One commissioner questioned what the extension would accomplish. The commissioner said Great Mills Road was heavily traveled when Gate 2 was the main entrance to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, but that Gate 1 now carries the most traffic. The commissioner said many drivers seem to leave FDR Boulevard as soon as they can, near Hewitt Road, and asked for traffic counts. “I only got four meetings left,” the commissioner said. Norris said the county did get a count at Gate 2: 17,000 vehicles on an average weekday. Staff can ask the State Highway Administration for numbers comparing the two gates, he said.
Norris acknowledged Phase 4 has complications. It would take land from Nicolet Park, the county’s first park, and it runs behind commercial businesses at the Peg Road end that currently send customers through a residential neighborhood to reach Route 235. A commissioner asked whether the county would pay to build it. Norris said “not necessarily,” noting that development is proposed in the old Kmart parking lot and that he had not seen that applicant’s traffic study to know what road mitigation might be required.
The Phase 4 study is aimed at improving traffic flow to the base and cutting travel times and congestion, according to the county. The county’s state road priorities also include a signalized intersection at MD 235 and FDR Boulevard.
