SHA held a community information meeting last night at Glenelg HS on the State project to expand Route 32 from two lanes to a four-lane divided highway with shoulders from Linden Church Road to I-70. As part of this project the Triadelphia Road Bridge will be rebuilt and expanded over the 4 lanes and will include addition of pedestrian walkway and bike lanes. Construction will commence after school is out (late June/early July) and last over a year.
Issue: During the reconstruction only Westbound (toward traffic circle at Ten Oaks) traffic will be allowed on the bridge with only one 12 foot lane open for traffic. This will remain the status of the bridge until late Spring of 2020. Vehicular traffic going Eastbound (toward Columbia) will be directed to 4.5 mile detour including RT-32 for 1.5 miles to Rosemary Lane and back to Triadelphia (toward Triadelphia Ridge ES) then to Folly Quarter Road. This is NOT a safe option for any cyclist with fast traffic on Rt 32 and a steep climb on Rosemary Lane.
Jack Guarneri and Chris Tsien from Bike HoCo and Stuart Lamb from Glenelg Gang attended the meeting and spoke with engineers and consultants from SHA, Senator Katie Fry Hester (District 9), and Kim Pruim from County Executive Ball's Office. We expressed our concerns and discussed potential options for a key route used by hundreds of cyclists weekly. None of these options are in current SHA plans but include:
Potential use of the existing sidewalk adjacent to traffic lane to allow cyclists to at least walk bike over the bridge
Permit two-way traffic on single lane by using an alternating direction traffic light.
Building a temporary ped/cycle bridge could parallel the construction project crossing Route 32 with temporary wood chip paths on each side.
Investigate a possible temporary path in the vicinity of schools that would parallel Route 32 (this has right-of-way and potential wetlands issues).
We will continue to press on all these options with SHA and County, but the bottom line is construction starts in a little over a month and cycling groups and individuals should start identifying alternative return routes. Possible safer ways to get back toward Columbia from Glenelg area will add significant mileage but include:
Taking Southbound Ten Oaks Road all the way to Route 108 and then East back toward Homewood/Centennial Lane.
Taking Northbound Ten Oaks to Pfefferkorn and Route 144 Frederick Road back to Triadelphia or to Centennial Lane.
If you have other suggestions or comments let us know by email to: president@bikehoco.org or comments on our Facebook page (https://www,facebook.com/BikeHoCo/).
We will continue to keep you informed on status.