OCEAN CITY – A pedestrian crossing signal in front of the Clarion Hotel began installation this week.
Last week State Highway Administration (SHA) District Engineer Donnie Drewer and Assistant District Engineer Dallas Baker came before the Mayor and City Council to present their bi-annual update.
During that presentation, Drewer explained a pedestrian crossing signal planned to be installed on 101st Street in front of the Clarion Hotel would not be able to start until July and asked the council if they would prefer for the project to hold off until after the summer season as it will interfere with traffic for at least four weeks.
The council voted unanimously to postpone the installation of the pedestrian signal on 101st Street to October.
This week Mayor Rick Meehan returned to the council during Tuesday’s work session with good news.
“Subsequently I got a call from Drewer, who said if we wanted that [pedestrian crossing signal] to take place they would look into getting the materials from other vendors or other projects to accelerate the process,” the mayor said. “I passed that along to the council and they have begun the project that will be completed prior to Memorial Day weekend without having to work the Thursday and Friday of Springfest weekend. I would like to thank SHA in being able to move that forward because we all believed it was a public safety issue. It is a good thing for the summer of 2015.”
In the past couple of years, the SHA has implemented a pedestrian safety campaign, Walk Smart, and have made several modifications to roadways in Ocean City to enhance pedestrian safety, such as installing pedestrian crossing signals in popular areas where pedestrians have been found crossing Coastal Hwy. without signals.
This time last year Drewer reported a pedestrian crossing signal was installed at 54th Street in front of Macky’s Bayside Bar and Grill similar to the pedestrian signal on 49th Street in front of Seacrets.
At that time, Drewer recognized the council had stressed to SHA to have a study conducted to install a pedestrian signal in front of the Clarion Hotel. There is high foot traffic in that area due to the hotel having a second parking lot across the highway for overflow parking and where employees park. The results of that study did meet the requirements for a pedestrian signal.