County picks which road it is set to build

FDR Blvd. gets green light

Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

Meanwhile, plans to extend Pegg Road in Lexington Park to Indian Bridge Road and beyond were questioned Tuesday by the St. Mary’s County commissioners and some funds were pulled from the long-range budgets to build it.

FDR Boulevard now exists only in three disconnected segments. One is a private road serving Millison Plaza in Lexington Park, another is the entrance to the Lexington Park library and a third is a county road behind the First Colony shopping center in California.

The right of way for the planned roadway runs from the Wildewood neighborhood to the Lexington Park library. Design is under way to build the road from First Colony to Chancellor’s Run Road and offers have been made for land acquisition, said George Erichsen, director of public works and transportation. It is a $17 million project.

Erichsen said the affected neighborhoods along FDR Boulevard’s path have shared their comments and concerns with his department and that most residents don’t have a problem with the roadway itself.

For the road to connect all the way to Great Mills Road, six or eight property owners would be displaced, he said.

At Tuesday’s meeting Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D) asked Erichsen if the Maryland State Highway Administration has offered any advice on the extension of Pegg Road in Lexington Park.

Greg Welker, district engineer for SHA, told Erichsen in a letter the state would provide $1.3 million to the project if the county takes over small sections of state road in St. Mary’s such as Mervell Dean Road in Hollywood and the southern end of Indian Bridge Road.

SHA did not offer any advice on whether extending Pegg Road was a viable alternative as an evacuation route from Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

Mattingly said he just wanted an answer from the state to that question.

He told Erichsen, ‘‘You’re asking the wrong guy if you’re asking Greg Welker. He’s just a messenger.”

Mattingly said of Mervell Dean Road, ‘‘That road’s in good shape, but Indian Bridge, you don’t want that. It’s too narrow and has extremely old bridges.”

jbabcock@somdnews.com