OCEAN CITY — The second closure of Golf Course Road at Route 50 is scheduled for Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.
Last week, after two scheduled earlier attempts, Stat Highway Administration (SHA) crews closed Golf Course Road at the south side of Route 50 between the Royal Farms convenience store and the Francis Scott Key Family Resort from 9 p.m. on Tuesday into Wednesday morning. The closure was needed to facilitate the installation of a drainage pipe under the roadway, which is part of a larger project to construct a bicycle-pedestrian-friendly path along the south side of the Route 50 corridor from Route 611 to the Harry Kelley Memorial Bridge.
Acknowledging the road closure in the midst of the summer season for residents and businesses along the corridor, SHA planned the one-night closure to get in and out quickly and finish the project in one overnight session. However, while much the project was completed last week, SHA crews hit a snag when an old pre-existing drain pipe was discovered, which complicated the process and required a second closure, according to SHA District Community Liaison Bob Rager.
“Long story short, we ran into some old drainage structures, circa 1960s, that weren’t shown on any drawings,” he said. “We need to get those out of the way to finish the new drain pipe run.”
As a result, Golf Course Road will be closed again starting at 9 p.m. on Tuesday until roughly 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Rager explained the second phase of the project will include filling in the existing abandoned drain pipe and installing the new section. It will require some asphalt patching when completed and the asphalt supplier does not stay open overnight for such a small project, which is why the final step will be patching the roadway on Wednesday morning.
“We need a long night without any rain and right now this looks like a good window to knock out the rest of this work,” he said. “Crews need to filling and old, unmarked and abandoned drain pipe that was discovered last week, then set the rest of the new pipe across Golf Course Road.”
Golf Course Road will be closed from 9 p.m. on Tuesday until roughly 9 a.m. on Wednesday between Route 50 and Route 707, or Old Bridge Road. Detour signs will be posted directing motorists to use Route 611 and Route 707 to navigate around the closure area.