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.
I’m going to post any comments people send me by email here. I will remove their names, in case they didn’t want to share that info with all.
I think that the dump truck accident this week, which resulted in us all being cut off from entry/exit for several hours and many of us scrambling to make arrangements for our elementary school kids who couldn’t get home, shows an important benefit of the overpass option: there would be more than one access point for our neighborhood.
” I was wondering what the impact both options would have on Howard County School assignment zoning. “
“I can’t for the life of me see why anyone in our neighborhood would want either of these two remaining plans. HS redistricted to Hammond, lower property values and would be having to head south for a U-turn anyway to go north on 29. Not to mention let’s save the $10M.”
The HCPSS spokesperson has checked and indicated that no changes in districting would be expected as a result.
The purpose of the new under/over pass is to *prevent* the need for heading south for a U-turn to go north on 29, the under/over pass provides quick access to/from 29 northbound via a new ramp that would be constructed on Old Columbia Road just opposite our community. By contrast, removing the light and *not* providing one of these options would likely have significant negative impact on property values and safety and would create exactly the scenario you are concerned about. Please let me know if you have ideas about how to make this clearer in the post. Thanks!
Thank you for clarifying. I had overlooked the new Ramps 3 and 4 access to/from Rte 29. Am glad that either plan would not affect school districting.
“The HCPSS spokesperson has checked and indicated that no changes in districting would be expected as a result. ”
I would be surprised to hear that this unnamed “HCPSS spokesperson” would still be saying this 6 months after the project is completed.
There is only one official HCPSS spokesperson and we are fortunate to have her living in our neighborhood. I won’t post her name in the public forum without her permission, but it is public information and not hard to find. Obviously nobody knows what future redistricting will bring (with or without these roadway changes), but when she checked in June, she indicated that it did not appear that any of the proposed roadway changes would trigger redistricting and no redistricting was planned for our community for any other reasons at that time either. I will try to get an official quote from her to post here.
My understanding is that redistricting has a lot to do with optimizing facilities and resources; I doubt it weighs heavily which route would get students to school 30-60 seconds faster.
The official quote (with her permission):
On 6/19/2014 1:34 PM, Rebecca Amani-Dove wrote:
“We also favor the underpass solution.”
Strongly favor the underpass option
I’m wondering why the Vista option includes plans for sidewalk/lighting on Long View but not on Vista itself. There is an entrance to the community park on Vista so there is quite a bit of foot/bike traffic, much of it children, so a plan that increases traffic on the road is a concern and would seem to warrant some pedestrian safety considerations.
I’m writing this email to voice my opinion about the proposed plans (option 1C or 3) of restructuring our community with the advanced road expansion on Route 29. I have concerns that were not addressed in the cons of option 3 completely. At times with change, it can be difficult for so many people and to have 2 residents displaced because of the new travel route for our communities would be devastating, but I would hope that the families would be well compensated by SHA or another funding institution for the inconvenience.
Here are a few more things to consider:
Our community is a wonderful, quiet, friendly place to live and if Long View Road becomes the main access route, more traffic in both directions will take place.
Although mentioned, a very intense safety issue. No mention of installing sidewalks or true bike lanes. Families walk their pets, infant children and adults alike. The potential risk of someone getting hurt increases.
Now, motorists are respectful of Howard Co buses that come to pick up our children. With more traffic coming through, the potential of motorist not adhering to the law increases because they are trying to get to work and other places in a timely fashion.
If there is an accident on Route 29S & exit 16A (32E), the proposed access road will experience more traffic as an alternate route.
It has always been expressed that when inclement weather occurs bridges freeze first, so an overpass bridge is more susceptible to freezing first than an underpass.
I vote for the underpass concept. The state proposed this in 1987. Looking at those old drawings, I can see that the current concept isn’t much diferent. After almost thirty years, the state needs to bite the bullet and do it, congestion and inconvenience problems or not. If the Vista Road bridge happens, I am going to lobby for speed humps on Long View and Vista. When I moved here, the entrance was at Vista Rd. but there was no Rivers Edge, Riverside Estates, or Rivers Glen. Cars regularly exceed the speed limit now. What’s it going to be like when Vista Rd. involves the current neighborhood?
Q-Do the underpass and bridge concepts include bike and pedestrian lanes?
Has the discussion at the meeting changed the HCPS reps info. regarding the school issue?, I was working and couldn’t attend…
No change was discussed, nor would I expect it to. My understanding is that HCPSS re-districting is done mainly to optimize school capacity (schools are very expensive) and has little to do with optimizing bus travel time.