New lanes considered for Route 3 shopping center

Two lanes may be added to a section of Route 3 to accommodate a new shopping center, an expansion that some residents say could worsen traffic congestion on the already busy state road.

Speaking before the Greater Crofton Council Tuesday night, Greg Wekler, an engineer for the State Highway Administration, said the stretch of the road between Route 424 and Waugh Chapel Road may be widened from three to four lanes in both the northbound and southbound directions.

The road project is in the preliminary planning stages, and no final decision has been made, said Charles Gischlar, an SHA engineer.

The project would help alleviate traffic from the Village at Waugh Chapel South, an 88-acre development consisting of homes, offices, restaurants, a Wegmans supermarket, 14-screen movie theater and other shops built by Greenberg-Gibbons, which will pay for the road widening.

News of the proposed road change was not applauded by some members of the GCC, an umbrella group that represents nearly 20 community orga-nizations in the Crofton and Gambrills area.

Harry Sinclair Jr. - who grew up in Gambrills, on land he said is now the road's median strip - said the proposal made little sense to him.

He argued that the additional lanes would worsen traffic congestion in the area because motorists would find the road gradually narrowing from four to three to two lanes as the speed limit dropped.

Nor did it seem like a good idea to Madonna Brennan, GCC transportation committee chairman. She said the two new lanes will just make it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the road. It will make it easier to drive in the immediate vicinity of the new shopping center but ultimately, it won't be good for motorists, she said.

Ms. Brennan also is co-chairman of Crofton First, a group that has advocated for the construction of a pedestrian walkway over Route 3.

For decades, people who live in the area and rely on the road daily have called for major improvements. The most recent plan, over a decade old, calls for a "boulevard effect" - a system of overpasses and on- and off-ramps that would calm traffic while allowing motorists to drive through the corridor quickly.

But that project isn't likely to be undertaken any time in the near future, Mr. Wekler said.

"Very frankly, there isn't any money to build it," he said.

On a county-created highway construction priority list provided to the state, Route 3 ranks fourth, behind two roads next to Fort George G. Meade, he said.

Traffic fatals drop

Providing another traffic-related update, Mr. Wekler also reported to residents that there have been fewer fatal accidents in the county in recent years.

Through May, there have been 15 fatal traffic accidents on state and county roads in Anne Arundel - a track that would put the annual death rate below 2007's total of 48 and 62 in 2006.

The SHA can't pinpoint exactly why fatalities are down, but there have been more traffic-enforcement campaigns, sobriety checkpoints and education programs to teach drivers about distractions they face while driving, he said.

In addition, the SHA has used "targeted safety improvements," a technique that identifies accident hotspots and helps create plans to remedy the problems, he said.

In Anne Arundel, drunken driving is a major component in fatal accidents, followed by young drivers and elderly drivers. Statewide, rural roads tend to have a disproportionate number of fatal accidents, he said.

The GCC usually meets at the Village at Waugh Chapel Community center at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. However, there is no meeting next month.