Waldorf – On Saturday March 24th the State Highway Administration (SHA) held a public workshop at Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf to show local residents the plans related to 301 traffic improvements.

According to SHA statistics, Southern Maryland’s population has increased 163% since 1970. It’s expected to grow an additional 65% within the next 20 years. The US 301 corridor simply wasn’t built to handle this kind of volume.

 
 
 

In 2004, the US 301 corridor had five intersections with “failed” traffic signals.  SHA told The Bay Net that a failed signal is forced to handle a traffic volume beyond its designed capacity, so traffic backs up.  The infamous intersection in Brandywine which backs traffic up for miles during the afternoon/evening rush hours is one example.  Ten more traffic signals along the corridor are expected to exceed their capacity within twenty years, also.

SHA proposes three main solutions for handling the ever-increasing traffic flow on US 301 in Waldorf: upgrade the existing highway; build a bypass around Waldorf to the west; and build a bypass to the east.

The Western Bypass Alternatives start in general at the MD5/US 301 interchange at T.B. (which you might be more familiar with as the area near the Brandywine light) and heads in a general south-westerly direction with several slight variations available. 

The Eastern Bypass Alternatives also start at the T.B. and meander in a south-westerly direction crossing over the Timothy Branch and Mattawoman Creek, also with a couple variations. 

At the workshop, members of the transportation improvements team answered questions and encouraged visitors to fill out a form stating their best and worst choices for the project and leave it in a drop box.  While the SHA staff at the workshop were friendly, polite and soothing, they were often at best, uninformed and at worst, misinformed. 

A paper map taped to the wall and crowded into the display behind the professionally mounted placards was the focus of heated discussion through-out the morning.  This map detailed the different bypass routes all in one place for easy comparison.  Two men anxiously questioned the nearby SHA staff member about eminent domain; a woman later questioned the map’s accuracy with regard to protected wetlands in St. Charles.  The Staff member’s soothing answers were incorrect on both counts. 

You can read the workshop’s display placards online at the US 301 Bypass project site.  Look through the information carefully.  You can submit comments to the SHA via its website.

If you received the alternative routes booklet in the mail and haven’t yet sent off the reply form, please note that there were more alternatives available at the workshop than were in the book.  Workshop visitors received an insert describing Alternatives 3 and 4 which were only added after the booklet was mailed.  This inser