NEWARK — Still feeling the echoes of another troubled intersection, the Worcester County Commission voted this week to support a waiver that would allow for a stoplight at the intersection of Langmaid Road and Route 113 in Newark.
As the dualization marches on, traffic calming adjustments must be made to several existing intersections. The State Highway Administration’s (SHA) current plan for Langmaid Road and Route 113 calls for the installation of J-turns, something many Newark residents and county officials staunchly oppose.
“State Highway needs to hear from us that the citizens of Newark would like to have a stoplight,” said Commissioner Virgil Shockley.
SHA recently requested a waiver from the Maryland Department of Transportation to install a traffic signal at the intersection, despite standard evaluations recommending J-turns. The push for a waiver has a lot of support, with several commissioners besides Shockley agreeing that J-turns would be a mistake.
“They, the Department of Transportation, have to realize that this is a very specific intersection just like [MD Rt.] 12 and US 113,” said Commissioner Judy Boggs. “They are specific intersections with very specific and unusual needs.”
The shadow of the accident-prone intersection at Routes 12 and 113 colored the entire discussion Tuesday. In a little under a decade, that Snow Hill intersection saw a much higher than average rate of accidents including a number of fatalities. Last year, pressure from the community convinced SHA to add a stoplight to that intersection, despite an evaluation again not calling for such a measure.
Shockley, who represents Snow Hill and was one of the loudest voices, predicted that if the SHA waiver isn’t granted by the state for Route 113 and Langmaid a similar scenario will play out.
“Eventually someone is going to get unlucky. You have the same scenario that you had with Route 12 and US 113 … It would be starting a repeat of the whole process over and over again only it’s going to be in Newark,” he said.
The commission’s concerns fall in-line with those voiced by the Newark Volunteer Fire Company (NVFC). In a letter to SHA, the NVFC outlined its main issues with having the Langmaid intersection J-turned.
“With an emergency response, time is critical. We feel that a J-turn at this intersection will have a detrimental effect on our response time in both fire and medical emergencies,” wrote Jackie Carey, NVFC secretary. “In addition, although our drivers are trained for complicated situations, turning a 50-foot fire truck loaded with 2,500 gallons of water in a narrow J-turn would be difficult. Weather and other traffic on the road would only increase the danger.”
The letter also mentioned that many residents cross Route 113 at that intersection to get to the adjacent Newark Station gas and convenience store, the only such store within walking distance of the community. The fire company worries that the J-turns will not provide the level of safety to crossing pedestrians that a signal would and could leave potential for an accident such as the fatality experienced in Berlin in November at the intersection of Routes 376 and 113.
“We would hate to see another accident like the one in Berlin where a teenager was killed and his brother lost a leg,” wrote Carey.
The owners of Newark Station expressed similar concerns this fall and winter. They appealed to State Delegate Mike McDermott for help, which McDermott gave in the form of a letter written over the winter to SHA arguing that the J-turns would be counter-productive.
“Instead, it will create hardship on a rural community, cause significant access issues for some highly utilized public facilities,” he wrote, “and lend itself to aggravated safety issues as opposed to eliminating them.”
Like the NVFC, McDermott also had concerns about how J-turns would not facilitate pedestrian crossings at the Langmaid intersection and would instead cut the Newark community in half which “does not serve the interests of a very cohesive and rural community.”
In addition to the slew of safety worries, there is a fear that the J-turns would be detrimental to business at Newark Station. Ocean Petroleum owner Ed Ellis, who owns property on the west side of Route 113 at the intersection and counts Newark Station as a tenant, also wrote a letter questioning the J-turns.
“There will be a significant impact on motor fuel sales caused by restricted access and diminished site lines to the fuel dispensing area,” wrote Ellis, a former Worcester County Planning Commission chairman.
Kimberly Kneller, manager of Newark Station, agreed with Ellis’ assessment of the potential impact to business but asserted that everyone’s main concern is safety.
Due to all of the safety concerns voiced by several parties as well as other worries over how large agriculture and commercial vehicles would operate with J-turns, the County Commissioners agreed unanimously to send a letter supporting SHA’s request for a waiver to install a traffic light at the Langmaid Road and Route 113 intersection.