OCEAN CITY – Officials in Ocean City are seeking a state grant to fund a shared bike path project in the Montego Bay community.
In a meeting of the Ocean City Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee this week, President Paul Mauser announced the town has applied for grant funding through the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Bikeways Program to construct a shared bike lane in the community of Montego Bay.
“The project involves 2.5 miles of shared bike lane in the Montego Bay community,” he said. “It will include mostly shared roads, signage and new crosswalks.”
The project will be part of Ocean City’s ongoing effort to establish a continual bike path system along side streets from one end of the resort to the other. The goal is to minimize the need for bicycles to interact with vehicles on the town’s major roadways, including Coastal Highway.
In 2016, for example, the city received more than $50,000 from the Bikeways Program to create a bike route along Sinepuxent Avenue, which runs from 146th Street to Montego Bay.
And now, the town is seeking additional grant funding to continue a bike path into the residential community, which consists of more than 1,500 properties.
Mauser told the committee this week the grant, if awarded, would be used to establish a shared bike path starting at South Ocean Drive and continuing through Harbour Drive, Gulf Stream Drive, Oyster Lane, Beachcomber Lane and Sea Breeze Drive.
“It’s a $75,000 project,” Mauser said, “with $60,000 being grant money for thermoplastic and $15,000 being design work, which is an in-house contribution.”
