By Jack Bowman

Construction on Route One continues to disrupt traffic in College Park after being extended past its original expected completion.

The construction project currently involves adding and expanding a median. According to College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir, the project, which falls under the purview of the State Highway Administration, is now set to be completed sometime in the spring. 

“If everything is done by summer, I think everyone will be happy,” Kabir said. 

This represents a significant change in the timeline of the project. The construction, which began in May 2020 with a budget of $50.4 million, was originally slated to wrap up by the end of 2023. 

Kabir says the State Highway Administration will move to doing landscaping once that is done. 

These improvements fit in with the overall goal of the construction, which Kabir said is geared towards improving both traffic flow and the aesthetics of the road. 

“Route One near the Beltway is not really nice,” Kabir said in a 2023 interview. “I mean, it doesn’t look nice … it’s not very inviting.” 

In recent weeks, the construction has caused closures around the 8100 block of Baltimore Ave. This has led to congestion in front of heavily trafficked areas near apartment buildings such as The Varsity and popular restaurants such as Looney’s Pub. 

On Friday night, the closures even took the form of multiple lanes on Route One being shut down. 

These closures have led to delays for College Park drivers, including students who commute to the University of Maryland for classes. 

Senior journalism student Jacob Hunting, who commutes from an apartment building roughly 2.5 miles from campus in the direction of the Beltway, says the construction can make his daily drive to campus an arduous task. 

“A drive that should be eight minutes can take up to 20,” Hunting said. “It seems like they keep ripping up the same piece of road and rebuilding it.” 

Camden Hall, a senior engineering major who lives with Hunting, shared the same sentiment. 

“A ten minute drive has taken me more than 30 minutes before,” Hall said. 

With a new completion date set forth by the State Highway Administration and echoed by Mayor Kabir, perhaps College Park residents can look forward to an imminent return to normalcy in local traffic.

Featured Image: Construction causes traffic on Route One in College Park, MD on April 4, 2024. Photo by Theodore Rose.