Reasons Behind Mountain Road Resurfacings

Last week the State Highway Administration (SHA) , causing traffic delays and . It also raised questions from the public, who wondered whether that section of Mountain Road needed repaving. 

According to the SHA, two different parts of Mountain Road were paved last week, a 1.1-mile section from Long Point to Pinehurst roads and a 1.72-mile stretch from Schmidts Lane to South Carolina Avenue. The estimate for paving the two road sections reportedly cost $550,000.

SHA spokesman Bob Rager said that between 2008 and 2010, approximately six miles of Mountain Road were resurfaced.

“In 2008, SHA resurfaced MD 177 from MD 2 to Freetown Road in both directions,” said Rager in an email to Patch. “In 2010 we resurfaced Freetown Road to Schmidts Lane, and South Carolina Avenue to Long Point Road, again in both directions.”

While some readers questioned the necessity of resurfacing again only a few years later, Rager said that frequent repaving of highly trafficked roads is not out of the ordinary.

“It is common to resurface some sections of a roadway more frequently than others since traffic volume greatly influences road condition,” wrote Rager. “Two miles of MD 177 between Pinehurst Road and Gibson Island were last resurfaced in 1978, and have only been resurfaced twice since concrete pavement was installed in 1928.”

The SHA said that on average, there are about 1,000 vehicle trips per day on Mountain Road between Pinehurst Road and Gibson Island. Meanwhile, the heavily traveled west end of Mountain Road near Maryland Route 2, which was resurfaced in the mid-1980s and in 2008-10, sees more than 20,000 vehicles, according to Rager.

“In prioritizing roads for resurfacing, SHA looks at many factors including general pavement and striping condition and friction characteristics of the road surface. Of course, patching is done as needed on all roads,” Rager wrote.