Details on detours and closings during Phase One can be found here.
After a year’s delay, the San Martin Drive Pedestrian Improvements project begins this month. The project aims to be completed by May 2017 and will provide the long, winding road with a continuous pedestrian and bicycle route, safety improvements and new landscaping.
The tree-lined San Martin Drive defines the western border of the Homewood Campus, stretching 0.9 miles from Wyman Park Drive to W. University Parkway. Though it has sidewalks in some areas, it lacks a full pedestrian route.
Designed by the Baltimore engineering firm RK&K with landscaping by the local architecture and planning firm Ayers Saint Gross, the renovations include a pedestrian bridge behind Olin Hall, improved street and new path lighting, a wide walking area free of obstruction, new crosswalks, two brick gateways, newly cemented pavements and an enhanced rain garden. Additionally, the project will create narrower vehicular travel lanes, which will slow down traffic on the road and make it safer for bicyclists to travel along the route.
The donor-funded project is divided into three distinct phases. Phase One, which includes the construction of the pedestrian bridge and a new three-way stop intersection between San Martin Drive and Bowman Drive, plans to be completed this September. Phase Two, Wyman Park Drive, and Phase Three, the northern portion of San Martin Drive, will last from September to December 2016.
The multiple phases will prevent the entire road from being closed off at any time. Even still, each phase will require certain sections to be closed to pedestrians. In order to help ease traffic confusion and help motorists and pedestrians avoid closed routes, detour signs will be clearly posted in the surrounding vicinity.
During the planning for the project, Hopkins representatives met with members from the adjacent Remington community to discuss concerns for the planned construction. The chief concern brought up by locals was the loss of about 30 on-street public parking spaces on Wyman Park Drive. Jennifer Mielke, Director of Community Affairs in the Office of Government and Community Affairs, explained how the University is working to solve this concern among neighboring community members.
“One remedy to address the loss of parking is to support and help facilitate the community’s efforts to convert the 3100 Block of Remington Avenue along the Wyman Park Building side into zoned Residential Parking Permit parking,” she wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
According to Mielke, the University addressed other subjects as well, including lighting, snow removal, security and a newly designed gateway that will provide better transition between the neighborhood and campus.
With its close proximity to the University, San Martin Drive is frequently used by students who enjoy running off-campus in their spare time, such as junior Shannon Cosgrove. Even though she appreciates the road’s naturally appealing scenery, Cosgrove is still apprehensive about using it as a jogging path because of its existing problems.
“I enjoy running on San Martin Drive because of how green it is around there. It feels like I’m not in the city anymore,” she said. “But I never run there in the dark because it’s hard to get away from cars due to the absence of a sidewalk.”
Junior Victoria Piscopo is especially excited for the new addition of more street lighting, as she recalled a previous experience while exercising on the road.
“I did run around the loop on San Martin Drive in the dark once and was panicking that a car was slowly following me, so I ran up around Gilman,” Piscopo said. “It could have just been that I was being paranoid, but I ran across campus so I could be in a well-lit area.”
Senior Shannon Parker believes that the renovations on busy San Martin Drive are long overdue, as the state of the road for pedestrians is potentially hazardous.
“I definitely think it’s something that should have been done a while ago,” Parker said. “A majority of the path has sidewalks that are alright, but in the most dangerous part there’s nothing, and it can be pretty terrifying.”
Assistant Director Design & Construction Nick Farrell is eager to see the project’s final outcome.
“With a safe and continuous sidewalk, including a new pedestrian bridge north of Olin Hall, we anticipate that members of the JHU community will utilize San Martin Drive more as another way of getting around campus, and for exercising,” he wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.