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Update, March 6, 2007
We are still waiting for a reply from
the State Highway Administration on their plan to improve traffic flow
coming from the Old Line Bank Building on to US 301 from its right in/right
out access to the highway. We were promised a reply by early March.
With the new office building completed and opened, it uses one of the right-in right-out accesses to US 301 South which it shares with the proposed Amber Ridge Shopping Center. Our Association is fighting to have the State Highway Administration channelize the left turn lane on US 301 South at Pointer Ridge Dr. We feel that the traffic leaving the building by that access will try to weave across the US 301 high speed traffic to get into the left lane to make the turn in the median to proceed North on US 301. As we all know the traffic volume on both the North and South bound lanes of US 301 is too heavy to complete that weave without an accident happening. Excaliber Road at US 301, (the Wal-Mart weave) is a good example. On January 31, 2006 a horrific accident happened at US 301 North and Pointer Ridge Dr. That accident took from midafternoon through the rush to clear. That accident expended the time, manpower, and equipment of four Prince George's County fire stations, six fire trucks, four ambulances, two Medivac helicopters, 10 police cars, four state troopers, three tow trucks, a mini-bulldozer and an additional medical unit. TRY TO CALCULATE THE COST!! That doesn't even take into account the man hours lost by the motorists caught in this backup as both north and south bound lanes were closed during that time frame. We are trying to prevent another accident of that magnitude from happening by requesting the SHA to channelize the left turn lane on US 301 South at Pointer Ridge Dr. So far the SHA is dragging its feet in making this improvement. They maintain that there is not enough data to require this improvement. We will continue to fight to get this lane improvement made. Central Avenue is also a concern for our association as it will become impacted as the development of Karington and the Hall Road Project move along in the zoning process. The pedestrian safety and vehicular traffic will be greatly affected with the commercial, residential, and library presence in our area.
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