MD state highway admin spending $48.6 million for an unnecessary bypass in Brookeville

[Anonymous]

Anyone else annoyed by this wasteful project? They are cutting through woods to build a very expensive bypass of 97/Georgia Ave "to preserve the historic native of the town."

There is no town. There are less than a dozen houses...but one belongs to an elderly politician who wants to be able to back out of her driveway onto Georgia Ave.

Nearly $50 mil for this project. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you have an axe to grind. Brookeville is historic. May not be worth $50 million, but to deny history makes you seem petty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you have an axe to grind. Brookeville is historic. May not be worth $50 million, but to deny history makes you seem petty.

There are a dozen houses there (on Georgia Ave)...and not all of them are historic.

Old Town Kensington is historic and actually has a heavily trafficked town center, yet there is no bypass.

$50 mil to reroute traffic away from a dozen homes seems absurd.

[Anonymous]

WTH is "historical" about Kensington?!?!

I LIVE in Kensington. There's nothing special about it. Its literally a whistle stop on a railroad line and overpriced homes for NIH BNH doctors.

[Anonymous]

I don't get it. What is this project actually doing? Georgia Ave seems to run right through the town. Where the hell are they re-routing Georgia Ave?

It sounds to me like they will need eminent domain to clear land. This may artificial boost prices for current owners. Something smells fishy....

[Anonymous]

They're still building this

[Anonymous]

This project has been on the books for over twenty years. Public hearings over every inch of it. Where have you been ? Nothing new here.

[Anonymous]

I live in that area. There are safety reasons for building the bypass. That intersection has a higher accident rate due to no shoulder and limited visibility. Brookeville was the U.S. capitol for a day when the white house was burned by the British. I see no reason to tear down the historic homes. Then developers will build condos. There will be nothing left but overdevelopment in this county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in that area. There are safety reasons for building the bypass. That intersection has a higher accident rate due to no shoulder and limited visibility. Brookeville was the U.S. capitol for a day when the white house was burned by the British. I see no reason to tear down the historic homes. Then developers will build condos. There will be nothing left but overdevelopment in this county.

I don't live there, but I've driven through it. And it definitely stuck out as a unsafe area of the road.

In general, I have no problem with redevelopment, but the reroouting of Georgia Ave seems like the best way to deal with those safety issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in that area. There are safety reasons for building the bypass. That intersection has a higher accident rate due to no shoulder and limited visibility. Brookeville was the U.S. capitol for a day when the white house was burned by the British. I see no reason to tear down the historic homes. Then developers will build condos. There will be nothing left but overdevelopment in this county.

I don't live there, but I've driven through it. And it definitely stuck out as a unsafe area of the road.

In general, I have no problem with redevelopment, but the reroouting of Georgia Ave seems like the best way to deal with those safety issues.

Yeah as someone who occasionally drives through there, it always strikes me as unsafe and I’m glad they are addressing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in that area. There are safety reasons for building the bypass. That intersection has a higher accident rate due to no shoulder and limited visibility. Brookeville was the U.S. capitol for a day when the white house was burned by the British. I see no reason to tear down the historic homes. Then developers will build condos. There will be nothing left but overdevelopment in this county.

I live in Brookeville and drive through all the time. I have never seen or heard of an accident (I believe you!), but imo one of the main reasons is that there is no stop sign coming in from GA "on the left". Also, the speed limit is 50 coming in from Sunshine and while it's 20 coming in, few people slow down that much. I think speed bumps would help a lot, and they should have tried those before the bypass. But it's being built, so that ship has sailed. I still don't understand where the road will diverge and where it will come out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in that area. There are safety reasons for building the bypass. That intersection has a higher accident rate due to no shoulder and limited visibility. Brookeville was the U.S. capitol for a day when the white house was burned by the British. I see no reason to tear down the historic homes. Then developers will build condos. There will be nothing left but overdevelopment in this county.

Yeah there aren't many other cities who were US capital for a day. That's of historic significance for sure.

Also that intersection is pretty dangerous, though I wonder if a traffic light would have solved the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in that area. There are safety reasons for building the bypass. That intersection has a higher accident rate due to no shoulder and limited visibility. Brookeville was the U.S. capitol for a day when the white house was burned by the British. I see no reason to tear down the historic homes. Then developers will build condos. There will be nothing left but overdevelopment in this county.

Yeah there aren't many other cities who were US capital for a day. That's of historic significance for sure.

Also that intersection is pretty dangerous, though I wonder if a traffic light would have solved the problem.

I'm 10:05 and I agree. Does anyone know why stop signs, stop lights or speed bumps were not options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you have an axe to grind. Brookeville is historic. May not be worth $50 million, but to deny history makes you seem petty.

There are a dozen houses there (on Georgia Ave)...and not all of them are historic.

Old Town Kensington is historic and actually has a heavily trafficked town center, yet there is no bypass.

$50 mil to reroute traffic away from a dozen homes seems absurd.

Kensington undoubtedly has a MD SHA problem. Connecticut Ave, W University Blvd, Veirs Mill Rd all need to be completely redesigned for the benefit of the people who live there, instead of the benefit of people who want to drive their cars through there fast. Plus MD192 and MD547. So yell at them about that, not about the Brookeville bypass.

Also, the last thing Kensington needs is a bypass.

[Anonymous]

The should construct interchanges