By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

Photo courtesy Ocean Pines Association This rendering of a roundabout concept was shared to the Ocean Pines Board of Directors last
Thursday.

(May 23, 2019) Not long after a traffic circle concept was proposed by the Maryland Department of Transportation at the intersection of Route 589 and Ocean Parkway at Ocean Pines’ north gate, a new single lane roundabout concept was introduced to the board last Thursday.

The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration has designed a single-lane roundabout with channelized right turns entering and exiting Ocean Parkway.

“The proposed design incorporates traffic-calming and speed control strategies to ensure that drivers will safely reduce their speed approaching this intersection,” a representative from the State Highway Administration said in the press release. “Intersection improvements are necessary to resolve the vehicle backup (queueing deficiency) occurring while exiting Ocean Parkway.

“An analysis showed that the proposed roundabout will operate better than the existing traffic signal and will reduce delays along westbound Ocean Parkway (leaving Ocean Pines),” the representative continued. “It will also allow traffic to U-Turn along MD 589 without entering Ocean Parkway, and has been designed to accommodate future traffic counts.”

However, some residents remain unhappy with the concept.

“This would be a true catastrophe for anybody that uses the north gate,” one resident said during the May 4 board of directors’ meeting. The board needs to step up and tell these people, ‘This is a disaster waiting to happen.’”

Association Vice President Steve Tuttle said the primary concerns of these residents are safety and traffic issues.

“A lot has to do with their concerns about safety,” Tuttle said. “I think people are concerned if they are not familiar with a traffic circle, they may enter it and pause or wait and be overly cautious to the point where it will create more congestion than it would help.

“For someone moving out of the north gate who wants to turn left, they’re going to have to cross traffic that’s continuing on 589 toward Route 113 and enter that flow of traffic in order to turn left toward the medical center,” he continued. “Then you have oncoming traffic from 589, which in the summertime, is a pretty heavy [with] beach traffic.”

The Ocean Pines directors have been asked to donate roughly a half-acre of land on either side of the north gate bridge to complete the project, which could involve expanding that section of the road.

In the meantime, the board has invited the State Highway Administration to appear during a public meeting with the residents of the association  his summer.

“We’re still waiting to hear back from them as to when they can come and meet,” Tuttle said. “We want to have a public meeting in Ocean Pines with the Department of Transportation so the homeowners can have a chance to ask questions and understand more fully what the concept is and what the impact will be on specifically those people who live in Ocean Pines as far as moving in and out the north gate.”

Tuttle himself wants to learn more about some of the traffic studies the State Highway Administration has conducted, including a Roundabout Feasibility Study in 2016.

“I want to hear more about their traffic studies that they are doing or have done and how the lanes are going to look,” Tuttle said.

In the event the concept is approved, it is anticipated that the intersection will remain open during construction.