A roundabout is being constructed at that site.
Frederick, Md (KM) The Maryland State Highway Administration says the intersection of Route 180 and Mount Zion Road is expected to open later this month. It has been closed since late June as crews were constructing a roundabount.
Spokesman Charlie Gischlar says the weather has been cooperative, and that intersection is expected to open to traffic once again on August 20th. “I hope I don’t jinx us right now. We’ve had some relatively good weather that helped proceed accordingly on that roundabout. But it looks like everything is about to take shape right now, ” he says.
Gischlar says last week, the concrete curb and gutter were poured, and now the foundations for the highway lighting at that intersection are being installed. Paving begins this week. “This is going to be the base course which is the actual level of asphalt that’s thicker and actually provides the strength of the roadway,”: he says. “Of course, we’ll come back down and start to do the final surface which is the top two-inches, finer material, more for ride quality. So that’s going to be all finished, hopefully by the end of the week.”
The project cost $4-million, SHA says.
Gischlar says roundabouts are much safer than a conventional intersection. “With a regular intersection, you’re dealing with perpendicular lines there. which means then you have the possibility of having conflicts between vehicles, and some of those conflicts can be the side impact, or the t-bone type, crashes, and they;re some of the most dangerous ones there,” he says.
Roundabouts, he says, keep motorists moving and they don’t have to stop for other vehicles. “Since 1994, {we} have not a fatal crash in any of our roundabouts. There was one incident in Montgomery County that involved an impaired driver. But it was near the roundabout, not in it,” Gischlar says.
SHA says about 4,000 cars travel through that intersection each day.
By Kevin McManus