Regional parks are getaways from urban and suburban life, but too often they either bring the crowding and congestion along with them or else the quiet and solitude is just too hard to get to. At peak times, Patapsco Valley State Park suffers from both problems. It's an important local getaway, but it needs an efficient gateway.
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| Proposed Patapsco Park Gateway where a parking lot is now located at the unfinished end of I-195 at Rolling Road. Patapsco Park now occupies the top area in graphic below (Soapstone Trail), and would be expanded into the green shaded area currently part of I-195, with its southbound roadway shifted to the red line next to the northbound roadway. |
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Patapsco Park's current major gateway is a long road off South Street off US Route 1 (Washington Boulevard) near the Relay community. It leads through a "toll booth" and eventually to a fairly large parking lot, near the river and major trails central to the Avalon Area. While this gateway is rather obscure and difficult to find for first timers, it is still "too popular" at peak times. The parking lot fills up quickly on nice weather weekends and then there's no escape valve where overflow traffic can go. What is needed is a more prominent gateway with easy access for as many people as possible, which can handle overflows as easily as possible.
Fortunately, the solution to this problem also addresses other challenges - expanding the reach of the park, extending it towards nearby communities and dealing with the vestiges of I-195, an interstate highway also known as Metropolitan Boulevard whose proposed extension threatened the park in a battle that lasted from the 1970s until fairly recently. It was only in 2011 during ongoing discussions of chronic congestion on Rolling Road (MD Route 166) northward through Catonsville that all parties finally agreed to rule out any future extension of I-195, since it would merely destroy more of the park and push the congestion to any new terminus point such as along Frederick Road between Catonsville and Ellicott City.
The ideal place for a regional gateway hub for Patapsco Park is the triangular parking lot which was built inside the unfinished interchange of Interstate 195 and Rolling Road, where communities and activists made clear that the highway should not be extended any farther. Even though this "park-and-ride" lot is located right on the edge of the park, it is totally surrounded by highways and ramps and thus has no relationship to the park. One of the park's longest trails, Soapstone Trail, is located nearby but is totally hidden and difficult to find.
The simple solution is to build a permanent ending for Interstate 195 at Rolling Road so that it no longer resembles an unfinished interchange, and no longer surrounds and engulfs the parking lot. The park and the Soapstone Trail can then be easily expanded adjacent to the parking lot and the trail head can be made as visible as necessary.
The way to do this is to get rid of the ramp which now serves as the beginning of southbound Interstate 195, and replace it with a southbound roadway adjacent to northbound roadway, thus consolidating all I-195 traffic in one place. The eliminated ramp can then be replaced with parkland for the extended Soapstone Trail, right next to the parking lot, which will still have convenient and prominent access from I-195 and Rolling Road on the other two sides.
The Soapstone trail can then be extended further eastward beyond the parking lot to proceed under Interstate 195 at its underpass along UMBC Boulevard. It can then connect to the Cera Trail within the UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) campus and to the Arbutus community, thus extending the "grasp" of the park.
Getting the trail safely across UMBC Boulevard may require further attention. UMBC Blvd has recently had two "traffic calming" roundabouts installed, but that may not provide sufficient relief in the area closer to I-195. Since trail users would only need to cross one lane at a time, traffic "chokers" that neck the roadway down to a width of only about 12 feet may provide the necessary visibility and safety. The portion of Rolling Road with its trail crossing has slower traffic, so a similar solution should almost certainly work there.
The establishment of such a prominent gateway for Patapsco Park would open up other opportunities. Signage to the park from nearby Interstate 95, the main street of the entire Northeast U.S. Corridor, would be straightforward and highly effective. An Information Center in the parking lot could become a very worthwhile project.
Right now, visitors have difficulty confronting the huge sprawling size of Patapsco Valley Park. The park extends about twenty miles, from the Avalon area near Relay northwestward to the McKeldin Area near Sykesville in Carroll County. This gateway would be commensurate to the vastness of the park itself.
Patapsco Park should keep growing in the future, expanding by another six miles or so eastward through the Halethorpe Area to Southwest Park and finally to Reedbird and Middle Branch Parks in Baltimore City, which is where the river's mouth flows into the Chesapeake Bay.
Transforming an essentially useless Interstate highway stub into a park gateway, where citizens banded together to prevent the highway from destroying the park, is also exactly what is needed where Interstate 70 ends at Leakin Park in West Baltimore and Baltimore County. A Patapsco Valley Park gateway would thus be an ideal model for a similar gateway for Leakin Park.
Thanks to Jim Himel for his contributions to this article.
Fortunately, the solution to this problem also addresses other challenges - expanding the reach of the park, extending it towards nearby communities and dealing with the vestiges of I-195, an interstate highway also known as Metropolitan Boulevard whose proposed extension threatened the park in a battle that lasted from the 1970s until fairly recently. It was only in 2011 during ongoing discussions of chronic congestion on Rolling Road (MD Route 166) northward through Catonsville that all parties finally agreed to rule out any future extension of I-195, since it would merely destroy more of the park and push the congestion to any new terminus point such as along Frederick Road between Catonsville and Ellicott City.
Converting an unfinished highway interchange into a gateway
The ideal place for a regional gateway hub for Patapsco Park is the triangular parking lot which was built inside the unfinished interchange of Interstate 195 and Rolling Road, where communities and activists made clear that the highway should not be extended any farther. Even though this "park-and-ride" lot is located right on the edge of the park, it is totally surrounded by highways and ramps and thus has no relationship to the park. One of the park's longest trails, Soapstone Trail, is located nearby but is totally hidden and difficult to find.
The simple solution is to build a permanent ending for Interstate 195 at Rolling Road so that it no longer resembles an unfinished interchange, and no longer surrounds and engulfs the parking lot. The park and the Soapstone Trail can then be easily expanded adjacent to the parking lot and the trail head can be made as visible as necessary.
The way to do this is to get rid of the ramp which now serves as the beginning of southbound Interstate 195, and replace it with a southbound roadway adjacent to northbound roadway, thus consolidating all I-195 traffic in one place. The eliminated ramp can then be replaced with parkland for the extended Soapstone Trail, right next to the parking lot, which will still have convenient and prominent access from I-195 and Rolling Road on the other two sides.
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| Plan view (to scale) of the proposed gateway. The green shaded area is currently southbound I-195 and would be converted to parkland. Southbound I-195 would be consolidated with northbound I-195 on the red line. The yellow line is an extension of the park's Soapstone Trail (lower left) through the new parkland to the Cera Trail in the UMBC campus (upper and lower right). |
Expanding the park's "grasp" to UMBC, Arbutus and eventually Baltimore
The Soapstone trail can then be extended further eastward beyond the parking lot to proceed under Interstate 195 at its underpass along UMBC Boulevard. It can then connect to the Cera Trail within the UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) campus and to the Arbutus community, thus extending the "grasp" of the park.
Getting the trail safely across UMBC Boulevard may require further attention. UMBC Blvd has recently had two "traffic calming" roundabouts installed, but that may not provide sufficient relief in the area closer to I-195. Since trail users would only need to cross one lane at a time, traffic "chokers" that neck the roadway down to a width of only about 12 feet may provide the necessary visibility and safety. The portion of Rolling Road with its trail crossing has slower traffic, so a similar solution should almost certainly work there.
Right now, visitors have difficulty confronting the huge sprawling size of Patapsco Valley Park. The park extends about twenty miles, from the Avalon area near Relay northwestward to the McKeldin Area near Sykesville in Carroll County. This gateway would be commensurate to the vastness of the park itself.
Patapsco Park should keep growing in the future, expanding by another six miles or so eastward through the Halethorpe Area to Southwest Park and finally to Reedbird and Middle Branch Parks in Baltimore City, which is where the river's mouth flows into the Chesapeake Bay.
Transforming an essentially useless Interstate highway stub into a park gateway, where citizens banded together to prevent the highway from destroying the park, is also exactly what is needed where Interstate 70 ends at Leakin Park in West Baltimore and Baltimore County. A Patapsco Valley Park gateway would thus be an ideal model for a similar gateway for Leakin Park.
Thanks to Jim Himel for his contributions to this article.
