Delmarva Today 7-2-21
Harold Wilson's guest on Delmarva Today tomorrow morning on Delmarva Public Media WSDL 90.7 is Jack Broderick, President of the Kent Island Heritage Society. He and Wilson talk about the work of the Heritage Society, the unique waterman and farming culture that is Kent Island, and the recommendation of the Bay Crossing Tier 1 BEPA Study that a third Bay Bridge should be constructed across to Kent Island.
What?!!! Most people know Kent Island as a huge traffic headache since it hosts the only corridor, Rt. 50/301, across the Chesapeake Bay north of Norfolk Virginia. During the week it carries over 68,000 vehicles each day. This volume jumps to over 118,000 per day over the summer weekends. During these high-volume periods, long lines of traffic are familiar on the corridor east of Annapolis and certainly on Kent Island. The state is currently studying proposals to address this problem including a third span connected to Kent Island.
The Kent Island Heritage Society responded to this third-span proposal in the Tier 1 NEPA Study with both written and oral testimony. Broderick argues that a third span connected to Kent Island, and the resulting new traffic infrastructure using the same Rt. 50/301 corridor across the island, “is a clear threat to preserving the heritage of Kent Island. The new infrastructure calls for taking a mile wide stretch of land on either side of the current 50/301 corridor.