FDR Boulevard Construction to Start in March … or April
Posted for Lexington Park Business and Community Association
Bay Leader
By Jay Friess
Allen Settle, an engineer with the St. Mary’s County Department of Pubic Works and Transportation, updates the LPBCA on the latest FDR Boulevard news.
Last August, Mr. Allan Settle, an engineer with the county’s Department of Pubic Works and Transportation, told the Lexington Park Business and Community Association that the South FDR Boulevard project – a 1,050-foot-long connector between Great Mills Road and Shangi-La Drive in Lexington Park, Maryland – would be bid in November 2012, awarded in January and begin construction in February.
Not so fast.
Last week, Mr. Settle said the project, known officially as FDR Boulevard Phase 2, actually went out to bid last week. The bids will be coming in next month, and the project might begin construction in March. Or April.
The holdup, according to Mr. Settle, has been the St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission (MetCom), which only started laying down its new sewer main along the road’s proposed right of way this month. The sewer line must be laid before the road can be built.
FDR Boulevard Plan. Click to expand.
But the county’s public works department is not the only one seeing delays in the area. Mr. Settle said that the Lexington Park Rescue Squad, which was supposed to begin construction on a new headquarters near the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department in November, will not start until April. Or May.
As for the rest of FDR Boulevard, Mr. Settle said that Phase 1, between First Colony Boulevard and Chancellor’s Run Road, has been funded for construction in fiscal 2015 and 2016. A design bid for Phase 3, between Chancellor’s Run Road and Pegg Road, has been advertised with construction funded for fiscal 2016 and 2017. Phase 4, between Pegg Road and Great Mills Road, has not yet been funded.
Patuxent Park Roads Getting Re-Paved This Year
Mr. Settle did have some good news. The county has completed the relocation of all utilities along Great Mills Lane and North Essex Drive in Patuxent Park, clearing the way for bidding and construction of new road surfaces.
The county expects to begin paving the roads in early June and complete the project by late September.
