A sample letter to Bruce Gartner, Administrator of the Howard County Department of Transportation please send to him c/o David Cookson: dcookson@howardcountymd.gov)

Dear Administrator Gartner,

I am a resident of one of the communities served by Rivers Edge Road and am writing to thank you for your decision to make a Rivers Edge Road grade-separated interchange the top county transportation priority. 

Our community of 413 homes and over 1000 residents has only a single inlet/output directly onto US29.  As traffic has increased on Route 29, safety and congestion have become growing problems.  FHA and SHA studies identified a grade-separated interchange as the best solution and our community has been waiting for over 30 years for it to be built.

As SHA seeks ways to reduce congestion on Route 29, the need for this interchange has become critical; building the interchange will improve safety, access, and equity while improving traffic flow on US29.  A grade-separated interchange that connects Rivers Edge Road with Old Columbia Road is also consistent with HoCo goals including connected communities, walk/bike-ability, and moving more traffic off highways and onto local roads. 

I respectfully ask you and your team to give top priority to the Rivers Edge Road interchange and help get the project funded and into construction.   Many thanks to you and Executive Ball for your support and your concern for our community.

An estimated 175 residents came to a standing-room only community meeting at the Church of God headquarters on Thursday 1/23 to review and discuss the SHA proposal to eliminate the signal on Route 29 and Rivers Edge Road.

The meeting was also attended by Councilwoman Deb Jung, aides to State Senator Guzzone, Delagate Pendergrass and Delegate Atterbeary as well as journalist Ana Faguy who covers Howard County for the Baltimore Sun.

At the meeting, Stephanie Cates-Harman spoke on behalf of the neighborhood intersection working group and presented the history of the interactions between our neighborhood and SHA including SHA’s past conclusion that an overpass should be built.

Deb Jung provided guidance as to how we might proceed and who we should be contacting including Governor Hogan and MDOT Secretary Greg Slater. She also suggested we attend (en-masse) the Howard County Transportation Priority meeting on February 20th (see letter below) and make it clear that a permanent, safe solution to our intersection such as the overpass, needs to be a top Howard County priority.

Please watch this website for more detailed information that will be posted by Sunday January 26th.

The RIVERS EDGE INTERCHANGE WORKING GROUP wants to bring to your attention an article that appeared in the Baltimore Sun last week discussing our intersection and SHA’s simplistic attempts to resolve an issue that has been scrutinized many times over the last  several decades, most recently in the 2015-2016 time frame.  The link to the article is here: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/howard/cng-ho-route-29-construction-20200109-rzgrpetyl5csppnfkkexpe55gu-story.html  

One of the members of the Working Group forwarded a response to the reporter to offer a more comprehensive analysis. That response is provided here:  

Dear Neighbors,

As many of you know, 5 years ago, SHA proposed closing our community’s access to/from Route 29 northbound. Through community organization and a coordinated response, we were able to persuade them to develop a better alternative. There was extensive analysis of options by SHA hired experts with our input and guidance. We encourage you to review the details, including the solutions proposed by SHA on this website.

Five years ago when SHA proposed to close off the northbound access to 29 from our community, we formed a working group to gather information, gather community feedback through petitions, email, and meetings, and share that with SHA. We also enlisted the support of our elected representatives who were very supportive.

The working group has re-formed to address SHA’s latest proposal. When this happened 5 years ago, we found that a single point of contact with SHA was very productive. Most of that was done through the working group and specifically Stephanie Cates-Harman. We believe it will serve everyone’s interest to coordinate our communication with SHA through Stephanie and the Working Group.

SHA has scheduled an informational meeting on Thursday, February 13th from 6-8PM at Hammond High School. Your attendance at this meeting is critical to how effective we are in getting their attention. The last time we had several hundred folks show up and we made it clear to SHA (and our elected officials) how important this issue is to us.

The working group thought it would be helpful to hold a neighborhood meeting in advance of the February 13th SHA information session. We will share information and gather feedback for SHA. The neighborhood meeting is set for January 23 @ 7-8pm in the Church of God meeting room (downstairs/around back).

If you know a neighbor who is not on the community group email list, please send their name and email to Sue McCarty (sgmccarty <at> gmail.com).

We are also asking folks that are on the group email list (https://groups.google.com/…/route-29–rivers-edge-road-inte…) to please consider limiting near-term use to critical messages. In the past, the flood of emails from our neighbors became overwhelming making the list ineffective. Let’s share our ideas at the community meeting and collect them into a single concise message for SHA.

We look forward to working with you to preserve and improve safe access to our community from Route 29.

The Rivers Edge Working Group

Following a number of accidents, SHA has again proposed simply eliminating the intersection and signal at Route 29 and Rivers Edge Road, limiting access to our community to right-in, right-out from/to southbound Route 29.

The announcement from SHA is here:

If you contact Ms. Harris (Eharris8@mdot.maryland.gov), please do so respectfully; this issue is very important to our community and maintaining a civil and cooperative relationship with SHA will be beneficial.

SHA has announced that they will be presenting and recommending a modified version of Design Concept #5 for the intersection at Rivers Edge Road and Route 29.   This design concept involves construction of an overpass at Rivers Edge Road to connect our community with Old Columbia Road on the East side of Route 29.  A new on/off ramp from Old Columbia Road will provide access to/from Route 29 northbound.

You can see a detailed drawing of the design here:  Recommended Alternative (Alternative 5) November 12, 2015

The SHA notice follows:

Just like to let you know that the Administration has recommended alternative 5 for the intersection of Rivers Edge Road.  During the informational meeting on November 12th , 2015, we will discuss the pros and cons for all the alternatives; however, Alternative 5 will be the recommended alternative for the community to provide feedback and input.  This alternative is posted on the SHA project website for review.

http://apps.roads.maryland.gov/WebProjectLifeCycle/ProjectMaps.aspx?projectno=HO3172313

MarieFrance Guiteau
Highway Design Division, SHA
Phone: 410-545-8885
Hours:  M-Thurs 8:00 AM- 6:30 PM
mguiteau@sha.state.md.us

The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) met with the Rivers Edge Community focus group and provided an update regarding the planned changes to the Route 29/Rivers Edge Road interchange.  SHA has conducted detailed engineering reviews of several design concepts and eliminated those not feasible for technical (engineering) reasons.  SHA provided their analysis in an impacts assessment matrix with additional details here and here.

Two designs remain under consideration:

Design 1C – Rivers Edge Road underpass (under Route 29)

Design 3 – Vista Road overpass (bridge over Route 29)

With either design, the traffic signal (light) at Rivers Edge Road will be removed and community access to/from Route 29 northbound will involve crossing under/over Route 29 to Old Columbia Road where a new on/off ramp will connect to/from Route 29 northbound.  For more information, see the new Fall 2014 newsletter.

To be kept informed, please send an email to Sue McCarty (sgmccarty <at> gmail.com) with your name, address, and email address.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and provided feedback on the new intersection concepts developed by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) for our community. The results of the community poll showed 60% of the community favored design concept 4 and 46% favored concept 1B as the alternate choice.  Thanks too for the many questions which were compiled into a list and submitted to SHA; the responses will be posted on this website when they are received.

SHA has cautioned that a final design is very much a “moving target”; as they examine concepts in more detail, engineering and regulatory issues may require changes to or elimination of concepts.

On July 16, SHA provided a status update to the Rivers Edge Road focus group.  Since April, when SHA introduced a number of preliminary intersection design concepts and shared them with us, their engineering team has performed more detailed analyses of each concept. The engineers examined impacts to environmentally protected areas and performed 3-dimensional (cross-sectional) studies of the terrain to understand what each concept would require with regard to roads and highway safety standards.  This review identified some major obstacles and, unfortunately, eliminated design concepts # 2, 2B and 4 as well as a new concept 5 that was similar to 4.  Undergoing further engineering analyses are design concepts 1 A/B, and 1C (all underpasses located at Rivers Edge Road, and not overpasses as previously communicated). Also, undergoing further review is design concept 3, which is an overpass extension of Vista Road.

SHA provided a detailed chart identifying the factors considered for each design.

Summary of designs still under consideration:

CONCEPTS 1A/B, & 1C ARE SIMILAR, VARYING MAINLY IN ENGINEERING DETAILS; ACCESS TO/FROM ROUTE29 IS PROVIDED BY:

• Extending the on-ramp from Rivers Edge Road to southbound Route 29 (would be doubled in length) to meet highway safety standards
• The off-ramp from Route 29 southbound to Rivers Edge Road would be extended and shifted to allow grade changes required for the construction of an underpass.
• An underpass would be built under Route 29 connecting Rivers Edge Road with Old Columbia Road on the other side.
• New on/off ramps would be built just south of the underpass from Old Columbia Road to provide access to/from northbound Route 29.
• Impacts discussed include removal a structure on each side of Route 29 including an existing home in our community and installation of sound barriers.
• During construction, the existing traffic signal would be removed and community access would be limited to right-in/right-out using southbound Route 29. To go north you would head south to Johns Hopkins Road then loop onto Route 29 northbound. To get to our community from points south you would pass the community on US 29 northbound then take the cloverleaf at Route 32 to loop onto Route 29 southbound.

CONCEPT 3 PROVIDES ACCESS TO/FROM ROUTE 29 BY:

• Extending the on-ramp from Rivers Edge Road to southbound Route 29 (would be doubled in length) to meet highway safety standards
• An overpass would be built over Route 29 connecting Vista Road with Old Columbia Road on the other side.
• New on/off ramps would be built to provide access to/from northbound Route 29 from Old Columbia Road.
• Impacts discussed include removal of a structure on the east side of Route 29 (not in our community) and installation of sound barriers.
• SHA stated that traffic studies conclude that the effect of traffic on the community by the Vista Road overpass would be minimal. However, the possible need for sidewalks on Longview Road due to increased traffic related to this concept is a county responsibility and is being investigated for the Focus Group. Contact has already been made with the County to discuss the need for sidewalks along Vista Rd and a request will be made to have a County representative available at the September meeting.
• During construction of the Vista Road overpass and associated ramps, access to and from the community would remain as existing at Rivers Edge Road.

Summary of designs that have been eliminated:

• Concept 2 was removed from consideration because the Rivers Edge Road ramp tie-in failed to meet the AASHTO minimum intersection spacing guidance. Attempts to resolve the spacing problem (a new Concept 2B) yielded ramps that would be excessively steep (10% grade).
• Concept 4 and Concept 5 were removed from further consideration because they required making substantial changes to Old Columbia Road that turned out not to be feasible because:
  • They impinged on an environmentally protected area (a Conservation Easement)
  • There were large changes in elevation (big hills) in the way that would would require excessive earthwork
  • The elevation changes would result in roads with unacceptable grades (too steep).

SHA and their engineering team continue to provide visibility into their processes and engineering. The focus group will meet with SHA again in August for another status update before a public meeting planned for September at Atholton High School; the meeting date and time will be posted on this website and sent to the community email list.

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