By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Town of Berlin is inviting residents to public input sessions to gather feedback on a long-discussed project to improve safety and connectivity along U.S. Route 113.

Berlin will begin planning efforts for a potential bike and pedestrian bridge over Route 113. The goal of the project is to explore options for a safe crossing that would better connect neighborhoods long since divided by the highway.

Two public input sessions are scheduled, and citizens are encouraged to attend either. The information shared will largely remain consistent at both meetings. The discussions are scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m. at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 405 Flower St., and Thursday, Feb. 12, at 9 a.m. at the Berlin Library, 13 Harrison Avenue.

Town officials will review and discuss possible bridge locations, including Old Ocean City Boulevard, Bay Street, and Germantown Road.

Community members can RSVP by emailing Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall at MayorZack@berlinmd.gov, and questions can be directed to executive assistant Sara Gorfinkel at SGorfinkel@berlinmd.gov.

Berlin resident and founder of the nonprofit We Heart Berlin, Tony Weeg said he plans to present a broader concept at the Feb. 11 meeting, one that reimagines Route 113 as a more pedestrian-friendly corridor rather than focusing solely on a single bridge.

“[My] design envisions Route 113 as a human-sized pedestrian corridor rather than a highway,” Weeg wrote on Facebook. “It was created to divide, and it’s high time we fix that and give folks the safety and dignity they deserve while walking up and down the road.”

Weeg’s proposal includes features such as bollards at intersections, audible and visual crossing indicators, and “monumental” trees lining the roadway. He said the improvements should extend from Burley Street to the hospital.

“Long gone should be the days of grandparents walking with baby carriages in the turn lane to get to Food Lion,” Weeg said. “We can do better than this.”

In August 2025, Berlin announced that nearly $1 million in federal funding for its original Connecting Neighborhoods initiative had been rescinded. While Berlin received the first $250,000, Congress eliminated the remaining $950,000 in a budget reconciliation bill passed in July.

Those federal funds were intended to support the project’s design and planning phases. The highway, installed in the 1950s, created an east-west divide through Berlin that has since limited safe pedestrian access to schools, parks, healthcare facilities, downtown, and the town’s only grocery store.

Following the federal cuts, Berlin began working with the Maryland Department of Transportation to identify alternative funding. MDOT later notified the town that it had located $643,000 in unspent earmarked federal funds that could be redirected to the Route 113 project. However, the town was required to provide a 20% local match to accept the money.

While MDOT gave Berlin two years to complete the match, town officials said at the time that they were given only 48 hours to decide whether to claim the funds.

At the same time, Worcester County had already awarded Berlin $113,000 for a separate Rails and Trails project, but those funds were restricted to that purpose. To meet the match requirement, Berlin formally asked the Worcester County Commissioners to repurpose that funding for the Route 113 effort.

Gorfinkel raised the issue before the commissioners at the end of last summer.

Ultimately, the commissioners voted 6-1 to reallocate $24,000 from the Rails and Trails funds toward the Route 113 project. Commissioner Jim Bunting voted against the motion.

Combined with $104,000 already available, the $24,000 brought Berlin to its minimum 20% match of $128,000.

The Town of Berlin is now seeking public input on the issue. The municipality encourages residents to attend one of the two sessions scheduled for next week.