[CGC] SHA plans study of 'Route 213 corridor' traffic patterns

[Administrator]

SHA plans study of 'Route 213 corridor' traffic patterns
By CRAIG O'DONNELL
Special from The Kent News
March 13, 2007

 CHESTERTOWN - How many, in what, where and how?

The State Highway Administration hopes to answer these questions about cars 
and trucks along what they call the "Route 213 corridor" from Galena to 
south of Centreville.

Sometime in March or April, cameras will log vehicles at a certain place and 
time, and consultants will match photos taken elsewhere to find out when a 
truck or car entered the area, when it left, and by what road.

About 20 cameras will be placed on or near Route 213. They will record 
traffic going both ways.

Cameras will count traffic north and south of Centreville; Church Hill; and 
Chestertown.

Other cameras will log traffic coming or going on Route 20, Route 291, and 
Route 289 in Kent and routes 544, 300 and 19 in Queen Anne's county.

What should emerge from this SHA "origins and destinations study" is a 
picture of weekday traffic during the 7 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. peak 
hours, where the trucks and cars are going, and where they came from.

The SHA will also do a traffic count by vehicle type in Galena the same day. 
It will determine how many vehicles of what type head through Galena toward 
Chestertown on Route 213.

A Feb. 28 meeting called by Richard Lindsay, district engineer at the SHA 
District 2 office brought together officials from Kent and Queen Anne's 
counties, SHA, and Chestertown.

It is the second meeting to look at coping with congestion on Route 213 and 
how to solve the looming problem with the Chester River bridge. The 
drawbridge is expected to last 10 more years at most.

The initial meeting was Oct. 3. Doug Simmons, SHA deputy administrator, met 
with commissioners from both counties and the towns along Route 213. 
Planning staff and others also attended the fall meeting.

The Feb. 28 meeting was smaller, with Planning and Zoning Director Gail 
Owings; Town Manager Bill Ingersoll; County Administrator Susie Hayman and 
Commissioner Ron Fithian; and Todd Mohn, who represented Queen Anne's County 
Public Works.

No one from Centreville or Church Hill attended. Along with Lindsay were 
five SHA employees.

Scott Holcomb, traffic consultant, explained the plan.

He said the picture will also include data on through traffic from north of 
Chestertown to south of Centreville and vice versa, and cut-through traffic 
leaving 213 for Route 301 around Church Hill.

Holcomb hopes to correlate traffic with existing land-use data, he said, and 
come up with general predictions about the effect of future development.

The last formal origins and destinations study was done in Chestertown in 
1979. The summary was released in May 1980. In recent years Mayor Margo 
Bailey has called for a new study.

In 2005, SHA conducted a truck count with cameras at Suds 'n' Soda and the 
south side of the Chester River Bridge. At the same time, truck traffic 
north and south of and through Centreville was logged.

That study was criticized for presenting a distorted picture of trucks using 
Washington and Maple avenues, because it did not account for traffic 
entering or leaving Route 213 at the Route 291 intersection.

Owings and Hayman suggested that a count of Friday traffic from 4 p.m. to 6 
p.m. should be done to compare with the weekday data. Holcomb agreed it 
would be a useful comparison.

Copyright 2007, Chesapeake Publishing Corporation