Grading Permit

On Friday 5/11 we were granted the grading permit by Howard County for starting work on the upper part of the realignment of New Cut Road. This part of the realigned New Cut Road is a shared project between Glen Mar and Howard County and falls under their jurisdiction as a Capital Project. Glen Mar will be building this part of the road using the subcontractor our General Contractor is using for site work and be reimbursed by Howard County for their portion of the expense for the road. This upper part of the road will be connected to Glen Mar’s part which goes from Montgomery Road to the entrance to our parking lots.

So that the site work subcontractor does not have to mobilize twice we have been waiting on the point where the Montgomery Road work by BG&E is finished and we can begin building the excel and decel lanes along with getting this grading permit so they can just move right on up the road and keep on building until the whole realigned New Cut Road is finished.

BG&E just about had the utilities on Montgomery Road moved when we ran into two obstacles.

1) BG&E discovered that a pole sitting in the middle of the future excel lane was not theirs to move or remove, but that it was actually under the custodialship of Verizon. We were told Verizon would take another 90 to 100 days to remove the pole, which would put a halt on the work in that area for quite a while. Fortunately, God is Good! and the pole was removed in 15 days and that no longer is an obstacle.

2) BG&E was working on the task of moving utilities (Gas and Electric lines) further back onto our property so that we could build the needed excel and decel lanes. The State of Maryland in conjunction with what we are doing is wanting to make improvements to try and correct a water drainage problem on Montgomery Road just beyond our property. The State therefore asked BG&E to hold up on making the final reconnections until they had their part of the work designed and had BG&E move their part of the utilities at the same time. This was to be another major indefinite slow down on progress. A meeting was held and terms negotiated and engineers collaborated and a plan was developed. A new timeline was set in place and the estimate for BG&E to finish their work in front of our property is by the end of next week 5/25.

All of this is said, to say that since timing looks good on getting the Montgomery Road section ready for construction, and we have a grading permit for the upper part of the road,…. we should see some action on the road soon with completion not being too far away.

No, I still don’t know about a signal at the new intersection. But I have been told that the State is doing their traffic studies to “warrant” the possibility of a Signal there. Howard County is working closely with the State on this issue and it is out of our hands.

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