BERLIN – As development along Route 50 increases, Berlin officials made it clear this week they would be watching traffic at the highway’s intersection with Seahawk Road closely.
During a meeting of the Berlin Town Council, Mayor Gee Williams said the town would continue to urge county officials to avoid having the Route 50 service road, Samuel Bowen Boulevard, meet Seahawk Road.
“We’re all hoping the westernmost access to that service road will be directly on Route 50,” Williams said.
The discussion arose after Dave Engelhart, the town’s planning director, advised the council he was attending the monthly meetings of the Worcester County Design Guidelines and Route 50 Transportation Corridor Plan Task Force. Lately the task force has been discussing plans for the service road, which at one time was expected to run from the area of Walmart to Seahawk Road.
“They’re still talking about where it should go, how it should end, how it should hook up into Route 50,” Engelhart said.
He said the original plans for the road were seven or eight years old.
“It appears it’s going to change from that alignment,” he said.
Williams said he hoped the task force was considering all the changes that had occurred along that portion of Route 50 in recent years. The area near Seahawk Road in particular has seen significant development, as a new Royal Farms and Arby’s are under construction and the Oceans East apartment complex is set to be built in the near future. Williams indicated that Seahawk Road, already home to two busy schools in addition to the coming apartment complex, would not be the best place for Samuel Bowen Boulevard to end.
“Seahawk Road is not the appropriate endpoint,” he said.
Councilmember Lisa Hall agreed.
“There’s too much going on at the intersection right now,” she said. “Royal Farms is getting ready to open, Arby’s business is going to increase. That intersection is overwhelmed as it is.”
She added that she thought Maryland’s State Highway Administration should consider installing a rundown crosswalk on Route 50 in front of Royal Farms.
“You’re not going to keep those kids from going there from the high school,” Hall said.
Engelhart assured the council he would continue to attend the county’s monthly meetings and would keep them advised of news on the service road.
“I think it’s going to be a long process,” he said.
