Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News
September 16, 2008 08:58 am
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CUMBERLAND — A lack of funding and a delay in the proposed Evitts Landing major housing development are impacting plans to move the entrance to Allegany College of Maryland away from the new Western Maryland Health System Regional Medical Center.
Matt Brewer, of Bennett, Brewer and Associates, told the college Board of Trustees Monday at its monthly meeting his firm should submit a recommendation to the State Highway Administration by late October. He said there are two scenarios to move the entrance, both of which would place the new road — which would connect Willowbrook Road to Old Willowbrook Road — about 1,000 feet from the hospital’s main roundabout.
One possibility is a traffic signal at the college entrance, Brewer said. An ongoing traffic study will be pivotal in determining if a signal is necessary along with a two-lane access road to ACM. The project also would extend acceleration lanes and bypass lanes on Willowbrook Road to Interstate 68.
Brewer said a wetlands delineation study is needed along any regulated waterways and, as such, requires joint federal and state approval. Federal approval will come from the Army Corps of Engineers. The state’s will be from the Department of the Environment and the State Highway Administration.
A second scenario would make use of a roundabout, similar to what WMHS is using near its new hospital and it is “what’s preferred by the State Highway Administration,” Brewer said.
“In fact, you almost have to prove you can’t build it this way,” said Brewer, noting the two criterion are safety and functionality.
Brewer said the SHA prefers roundabouts as studies have recorded zero fatalities in the traffic control devices. Speed would be controlled by signage and striping.
“We’re trying to just understand how best to use our land,” said board chairman Kim Leonard, who asked Brewer to give a brief presentation Monday. “Who’s going to pay for all this?”
He said the new entrance is a “direct result” of the hospital system building its roundabouts. Leonard was concerned about the timing of the roundabouts. The main roundabout, about 800 feet from the current college entrance, was to be constructed by next month. Brewer said that had been delayed until next spring.
There was discussion about how long the SHA would take to approve the designs. Brewer said that agency was one of “a number of funding sources,” and the thought, then is that would “be (an) impetus to speed up the review process.”
In May, the Allegany County commissioners made the Evitts Landing access road from Willowbrook Road its top project in its category in proposed projects to receive grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Those grants, administered by the Tri-County Council of Western Maryland, have not yet been announced. A presentation by a county economic development official in May showed the county endorsed the city of Cumberland’s application for $470,000 from the regional commission.
The hospital is scheduled for an October 2009 opening.
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