Evening star., 1953-03-22
Temporary Route
Around Annapolis
To Be Ready in June
By George Kennedy

=
The Annapolis bypass, the ap-
proach to the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge without going through
the narrow streets Of Maryland'S
capital, is slowly being trans
formed from blueprints into re-
ality.
It will be completed toward
the end of 1854 but by June IS
of this year it will be possible
to get around Annapolis using
temporary roads and the new
81 million Severn River Bridge,
which will be completed at that
time.
Most Washingtonians don't
realize it, but there is a new
road to Annapolis, a superhigh-
way already in use. Unfortu-
nately, it only comes about one
third of the way to Washington
and its completion will be some
where in the indefinite future.
But there is no reason for not
using what there Is Of it.
How to Get to 1t.
Most of the traffic between
Washington and Annapolis uses
Route so (the Defense highway
or Route 214 Central avenue)
The new highway lies between
these two routes from Route 301
Grain highway to Parole, Md,
2 miles west of ANNAPOLIS.
The motorist bound for An
napoliS on the Defense high
way should turn to the right
instead of to the left when he
gets to 301. About 2 miles south,
he will come to an overpass and
clover leaf, which is the ter
minus of the new road. When
he goes up on it he finds himself
travelling on a no-access, high
speed. dual highway as good as
the New Jersey turnpike. The
only trouble is there is not
enough of it. After clocking off
almost II miles he comes to the
end of the pavement where a
bridge is being constructed over
the Defense highway at Parole.
At present he has to go down
on the old Defense highway and
drive into Annapolis on West
street, a narrow street with cars
parked on both sides and fire.
Quent traffic lights. After June
Is the motorist will. be able to
avoid this. He will be directed
to turn back toward Washing
ton for quarter of a mile to
Cars Corner. There he will
turn right on the Generals
highway, right on Best Gate
road, right on Ridgely avenue
and left on the new highway
again about a mile to the Severn
River Bridge.
Prison labor soon will be
widening these streets and
eliminating unnecessary grades.
It undoubtedly still will be
something of a bottleneck, espe-
cially on Sunday nights when
every one is trying to get back
to Washington from the Eastern
Shore - but it will be better
than going through Annapolis.
The dual highway from the
east end of the new Severn River
Bridge to the intersection of the
Revell and Ritchie highways. a
distance less than a mile, will
be completed by that time.
The Ritchie highway is the
dual road between Baltimore
and Annapolis. The Revell high
way is a dual road that connects
it with the bay bridge, a dis
tance of about miles. At
their intersection, the Maryland
Roads Commission is building a
three-level interchange with
loops to take care of traffic going
In any direction.
This interchange, which will
cost 81 million, is scheduled for
completion on September IS,
1854. In the meantime, traffic
will skirt it, using the outside
ramps now under construction.
1t took 33 months to build the
$44 million bay bridge, and why
work on the approaches now
going on was not done during
that period is hard to explain.
The usual reasons given by
spokesmen for the Roads Com
mission is that they didn't have
the money. The bridge was fl
nanced by a bond issue. This
work is being financed by appro-
priations.
When the bridge was opened,
1t was available to Baltimore mo-
florists by modern dual highways.
One can't escape the conclusion
that taking care of the Wash
ington motoriSt is less important.
The Washington population has
no political power in Maryland.
If the Annapolis bottleneck had
been between Baltimore and the
bridge, the situation probably
would have been corrected by the
time the bridge was opened.
It will be years before Wash
ington has a dual highway to
the bridge. The new Route so,
the superhighway described, ends
at Route 301, and between it and
Washington are open fields. No
land has been acquired for COM
pletion of the road, which is to
run IL miles to the Kenilworth
interchange, where the new Bal
timore Washington expressway
also will enter the Capital.
Some survey work has been
done, and plans for overpasses
cloverleafS and bridges across
streams are under preparation
In the commiSSion'S Offices II