3.1. National Projects
Rhode Island Avenue, Mount Rainier, Maryland
Location: Mount Rainier, MD
The Project: U.S. Route 1 (Rhode Island Avenue) split the commercial town center of Mount Rainier with a six-legged intersection and four lanes of traffic with an ADT of 21,000. The basic issues were pedestrian safety, environmental enhancement, the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) bus turnaround area, storm drainage inadequacy, the lack of a clean, safe, and welcoming mixed-use town center, and vehicular and bicycle safety.
Location: Mount Rainer, Maryland.
Context Setting: Urban
Road Classification: Urban U.S. arterial
Stakeholders: Maryland State Highway Administration, Neighborhood Conservation Program, Washington Metro Area Transit Authority and Residents.
The Process: This project replaced a six-legged intersection and four lanes of cars rushing through two blocks of liquor stores and abandoned buildings with a simple traffic roundabout, landscaped plazas, pedestrian lighting, easy pedestrian crossings, bus shelters built on early 20th-century designs, new business, and with public art including two blue-glass sculptures that will be lighted at night at opposite ends of the roundabout and bas relief sculptures of some of the diverse faces that make up the community of Mount Rainier.
Lessons Learned: The roundabout has decreased starting and stopping by through traffic and has reduced emissions from this source. The overall project significantly reduced impervious surfaces and replaced them with landscaping.
The parties interviewed for this case study all considered this to be a major learning experience with frustrations in the process but with a very worthwhile result. MSHA has acknowledged that the experience here has contributed greatly to the evolution of their project efforts using context design principles.
The project would have benefited from the knowledge that MSHA now has in designing its project process for NCP projects. If overall project goals had been identified up front with all stakeholders and if a team with all the skills needed had been assembled early, the project would have proceeded more smoothly.
