OCEAN CITY — With the dune-style median fence project moving right along, resort officials last week vowed to remain active through the design process.
The State Highway Administration (SHA) last month held a public informational hearing on the somewhat controversial dune-style fence down the center median of Coastal Highway from the Convention Center to Route 90, a necessary step in the roughly 18-month process from initial design to construction. With the requisite public meeting out of the way, SHA is rapidly moving forward with the design phase, but resort officials this week stressed the importance of keeping on top of it and assuring what is proposed on paper is what ends up on the highway.
During a Transportation Committee meeting last week, Public Works Director Hal Adkins said SHA is moving forward quickly on the design process for the median fence.
“They are pushing for completion of the design by September,” he said. “It’s an aggressive timetable and the town really needs of keep a close eye on the design process.”
Councilman and committee member Dennis Dare agreed the process is moving forward rapidly and pushed for a couple of tweaks in the design. For example, the existing brick and landscaped median has crossovers, or breaks, at intervals to allow fire, police and emergency services to cross mid-block when necessary. Last Tuesday, Dare urged the committee to ask SHA to consider eliminating the crossovers, which run counter to the concept of the barrier in the first place.
“They are really rolling along with it,” he said. “One thing that stuck out for me at the public meeting was the emergency crossovers in the median. We’re going to have a fence the whole length of Coastal Highway and all of a sudden there are going to be breaks in the median to invite people to cross mid-block.”
Dare said he took the liberty of consulting with the fire and police departments and found out with a few exceptions, the crossover aren’t often utilized.
“I checked with the chief and found out we really don’t use them,” he said. “When you look to the reason for the fence in the first place, closing those crossovers far outweighs any occasional need for them. I also checked with the police and they concurred.”
Adkins said he and his crews occasionally utilize the crossovers, but not to the extent they could not be eliminated.
“Besides an occasional crossing, in all these years they are hardly used by anybody,” he said.
The committee made a motion to petition SHA to eliminate the crossovers in the median in the final design.
In January, the Mayor and Council approved the final design for the aesthetically appealing dune-style fence down the median of Coastal Highway from the Convention Center to Route 90. The proposed project appears to accomplish the goal of improving pedestrian safety and prevent mid-block crossings with a uniquely Ocean City median fence along with landscaping and improved lighting.
The median fence project is part SHA’s larger Pedestrian Safety and Connectivity Project for the often dangerous section of Coastal Highway from the Convention Center to Route 90. The design approval in January set in motion a timetable that could have the fence installed by the start of the 2017 summer season.
The undulating fence includes vertical slats at intervals that mirror Ocean City’s iconic dune fencing on the beach. The initial design did not include any horizontal elements and resort officials voiced concern the vertical slats were not spaced close enough together to encourage pedestrians from attempting to squeeze through and cross the highway at mid-block.
SHA engineers went back to the drawing board and returned with a final design approved by the Mayor and Council in January that now includes a horizontal top rail and bottom rail close to the ground to discourage pedestrians from attempting the breach the fence and encouraging them to use the crosswalks at marked intersections.
Dare said the committee also ought to keep a close eye on the final design of the vertical slats, particularly the angle at which they are installed. The concept is to deter pedestrians from crossing mid-block, but it shouldn’t block from view the businesses and vistas on the opposite sides of the highway. However, if the vertical slats are angled incorrectly, it could cause an unintended safety hazard, Dare said.
“If they’re turned sideways, it looks more invincible for pedestrians,” he said. “It also allows drivers to see the businesses on the opposite side, but we have to be careful with how they are angled. They can also allow oncoming headlights to shine through from the opposite direction, creating a flickering or blinking effect and that can cause a distraction for drivers.”
SHA officials explained in January the section from Convention Center Drive to Route 90 would be done first, with future sections likely moving southward because that is typically where the most pedestrian traffic is. The overall project could be done in five or six, or even 10 sections, depending on the funding and construction schedule.
