By Bella DeCrescenzo

College Park officials and residents gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday morning on Fraternity Row to celebrate the end of phase one of the U.S. 1 College Park Improvement Project.

The ribbon, placed next to a U.S. Route 1 crosswalk, was cut by Maryland officials who worked to see the completion of the improvement project. The ceremony was accompanied by the Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band,  the University of Maryland mascot Testudo, Miss College Park, a classic cars display and a free bike tire pressure check station.

This ceremony celebrated the new bicycle lanes on Route 1, new sidewalks, a raised median, new lighting fixtures, new pavement markings and other road safety features, according to Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administrator, William Pines. 

“A lot of the individuals here are long term residents…everyone is collectively on the same mission about safety, and having the opportunity to walk to where you want to go, walk where you live, walk where you want to shop…it’s meaningful, and I’m just so glad I can be a part of it,” College Park Mayor Pro Tem Denise Mitchell said.

Route 1 has been the scene of many accidents and fatalities over the years, so this project hopes to establish more safety parameters to help decrease the number of fatalities on this main road, Maryland State Senator James Rosapepe said. 

While the $57 million project began construction in 2020 and wrapped up in the fall of 2024, Rosapepe said this project has been in the works for at least 25 years.  

Jeff Lemieux, president of Friends of the Greenbelt East Trail, Inc., an organization that advocates for improved safety provisions along Greenbelt Road, explained that while this progression of the project is a step in the right direction, these improvements need to be made faster.

“All of our roads in this area, they’re dangerous, we have the highest fatality rate in Maryland and there’s so much work to do,” Lemieux said. 

Rosapepe agreed that this project took too long and said there were issues getting the project going. Then, once the project began, he said there were many engineering complications that threw the schedule off track.

College Park officials are now looking forward to the next phases of the project. 

William Pines explained the next two phases will work on spreading these improvements farther north. While there is no funding for these next phases yet, College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said they will hopefully receive funding within the next few months.

The completion of the Purple Line is also on the horizon in the next few years, which Rosapepe said will connect College Park to three metro lines and help make transportation to and from College Park easier.

“You’ll be able to walk out of your dorm in College Park, get on the Purple Line, get over to Amtrak, and go to New York. It’s gonna be incredibly advantageous for people who work, live, and come to College Park once we get these transportation improvements completed,” Rosapepe said.

Featured image: Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administrator William Pines, College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir, Maryland State Senator Jim Rosapepe, Prince George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson, and University of Maryland President Darryll Pines cut the ceremonial rope on Saturday, Nov. 9, signaling the completion of the U.S. 1 College Park Improvement Project. Photo by Bella DeCrescenzo