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Bay City
signal on 'fast track'
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| By:
KONRAD SUROWIEC, Staff |
April 26, 2001 |
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CENTREVILLE - The Maryland State Highway Administration will try to have
a traffic signal installed at the main entrance to the Bay City community
on Kent Island by the end of 2001.
"We have begun everything we need to do to start this on the fast track,"
said SHA District 2 Engineer Richard Lindsay. "... We're going to target
for this year." |
The signal
would be installed at Route 8 and Bay City Road. Lindsay and Del. Wheeler
Baker, D-36th-Queen Anne's, briefed the Queen Anne's County Commissioners
Tuesday on efforts under way to get a signal at the intersection. Several
residents emphasized the need for a traffic light at the entrance to Bay
City during an April 11 meeting at the Percy Thomas Center to review the
Route 8 corridor study.
Commissioners Marlene Davis and John McQueeney
were among the 70 or so residents who attended the April 11 meeting. Davis
called Baker. He called Lindsay and both men inspected the intersection last
Friday.
Both Baker and Lindsay said the long-term goal
is to have a 4-way intersection at Route 8 and Bay City Road. A new road opposite
Bay City Road would serve as the entrance road for Mowbray Park and the new
elementary school to be built.
"But I think it's imperative we move forward (now)
with this light," said Baker. He suggested he and the commissioners send letters
to SHA requesting the signal.
"We certainly will support a light at Bay City,"
said Commissioner George O'Donnell.
He said a signal has been approved by SHA for the
intersection of Route 8, Route 18 and Skipjack Parkway. KRM and other businesses
in the Chesapeake Bay Business Park were big proponents of that signal, said
O'Donnell.
Residents at the April 11 meeting said a traffic
signal at the Bay City entrance was a more pressing safety need than the signal
at the business park entrance. Bay City residents driving to work in the
morning have to turn left onto Route 8; waiting for a break in traffic leads
to frustration - and sometimes accidents - as drivers take chances when they
pull out on the busy highway.
Lindsay said the Bay City Road/Route 8 intersection
meets SHA criteria for a signal both for delay warrants and volume warrants.
He said SHA's goal is to try to have the signal installed in eight months.
Irene Way is the other entrance road off Route
8 to the Bay City community. Baker said he and Lindsay discussed putting a
"right (turn) in, right (turn) out" restriction on Irene Way in the event
problems develop after a signal is installed at Route 8 and Bay City Road.
Lindsay also said he will keep the commissioners
apprised of proposed safety improvements to two intersections in Queenstown:
U.S. Route 301 and Route 456 (Del Rhodes Avenue); and U.S. Route 301 and Route
18/Outlet Center Drive. The modified crossover design would only allow vehicles
to turn right from the side streets onto Route 301. Vehicles on Route 301
could make right or left turns onto the side streets.
The plans met with some resistance when SHA officials
reviewed them at a meeting of the Queenstown Town Commission, said Lindsay.
He said the modified crossover installed at Route 301/Route 313 in Kent County
has been a success.
Lindsay also said a committee representing bicyclists
and pedestrians in Maryland is making a strong effort to have bicycles allowed
on Route 301, but SHA opposes the move.
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©The Star Democrat 2001
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