The busy Plumtree Road-Route 24 area in Bel Air South could soon look a lot different and a quarter of a century of waiting will end with the completion of Tollgate Road.
Harford County plans to widen Plumtree Road between Tollgate Road and Route 24, installing a roundabout at the Plumtree-Tollgate junction, county officials confirmed.
A new owner, meanwhile, plans to break ground this year on the long-contested Evergreen Woods apartment project site, between Plumtree and the shopping center with DuClaw Brewing Company, the developer-owner's attorney said.
For Tollgate Road, that means connecting "that last segment we have been waiting for 25 years," from Plumtree to Bel Air South Parkway," Moe Davenport, the county's development review chief, said Tuesday.
The county would add two lanes for eastbound traffic on Plumtree at 24, creating dedicated lanes for drivers turning left onto Route 24 as well as going through the intersection, county chief engineer Jeff Stratmeyer said.
"We anticipate construction either late this coming fall or in the spring of 2016, dependent upon the progress of the Evergreen Woods extension of Tollgate Road," Stratmeyer said via e-mail, adding the county has all the rights-of-way needed to do the work.
The entire project, including the roundabout, road widening, traffic signal work at Route 24 and sidewalk and pedestrian crossings, will cost about $700,000, he said. The developer of Evergreen Woods is responsible for $350,000 of the total cost to mitigate traffic impacts, Stratmeyer said.
The sidewalk and pedestrian crossings would be at the roundabout as well as the Route 24 intersection, he said.
About a decade ago, "residents expressed concern about the potential for speeding vehicles once the missing section of Tollgate Road ... was completed," Stratmeyer said via e-mail. "We suggested a roundabout to allow them easier and safer access from Plumtree Road onto Tollgate, while also creating a 'traffic calming'/residential attribute to the community."
The roundabout would complete the string of roundabouts along Tollgate between Baltimore Pike and the Route 24 intersection with Route 924 in the Constant Friendship area.
"A roundabout at Plumtree Road fit well into that plan, except that it was fairly close to the existing traffic signal at [Route 24]," Stratmeyer explained in the email about the county's original plans. "Typically you do not want to install a roundabout near a traffic signal because of the potential for the queue from the signal backing up into the roundabout.Due to that concern, we designed the improvement with the section of Plumtree Road between [24] and Tollgate Road removed.Any traffic could be diverted to Bel Air [South] Pkwy or [West] Ring Factory Road."
Several area residents, as well as the Bel Air Fire Department, raised concern a few years ago, however, about closing off Plumtree and said they want to keep it open.
"When the traffic studies were received for the proposed Walmart and Evergreen Woods developments[,] we thought this would be a good opportunity to utilize the trip generations from those studies and analyze the impact keeping the connection open would make on the proposed roundabout," Stratmeyer wrote."Ultimately, it was determined that traffic can be adequately addressed and would not back up into the roundabout if we could provide some additional stacking and lanes for the eastbound approach to [24]."
Evergreen Woodsmoves forward
With a new owner, the 198-unit Evergreen Woods apartment complex seems set to finally move forward after getting support from the county's zoning hearing examiner for a zoning special exception in 2013.
Evergreen Group was a contract purchaser of the property and redesigned the site "for a more modern plan," attorney Robert Lynch said. The sale took place within the past year, he said.
"They hope to be able to start construction sometime this year," Lynch said. "They are definitely moving forward and there is definitely a strong market for their product, of high-end apartments."
Lynch noted the developer never supported the county's original proposal of closing off Plumtree Road.
"My client is comfortable with the ultimate resolution that has been worked out with the county [regarding traffic]," he said.
The county approved a revised plan in November 2014, Moe Davenport, of the county's development review division, said.