The work from the entrance of the University of Maryland campus at College Avenue/Regents Drive to the bridge over Maryland 193 (University Boulevard) will take longer to complete than it will to build Maryland’s 16-mile Purple Line and get it in service.

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“When you put it in perspective, it’s hard to believe that we are going to have a Purple Line coming through the city in 2022 from Bethesda and we can’t even widen Route 1 in that time period,” City Manager Scott Somers told Maryland transportation officials at a College Park City Council meeting last month.

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State highway officials say the six years of work is necessary to allow for the relocation of quite a bit of utility infrastructure in the corridor and to accommodate requests from the University of Maryland to have no construction during major university events.

Crews were to be restricted from working 180 days — nearly half the year — because of events at the university, state officials said.

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At a meeting this month, university and state highway officials agreed to revise that number. Andre Futrell, a State Highway Administration district engineer who is overseeing the project, said the state is also working to expand the hours of construction to include evenings and weekends to speed the project.

“If we are able to do that, we believe this will shorten the timeline,” Futrell said.

But that may not be enough. Utility relocation alone will take between three and four years to complete, during which time there will be lane closures, state officials said.

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It will take Pepco between 15 and 18 months to replace its utility poles, and after that Comcast and Verizon must relocate lines, Lindsey Bobian, the project manager with the State Highway Administration, said last month.

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The project requires the relocation of multiple circuits, including facilities that supply Pepco’s substations and serve thousands of local customers, Pepco spokeswoman Christina Y. Harper said. Crews will need to isolate and de-energize areas along the route so they can safely perform the work while continuing to provide service to customers.

The widening project, to include a four-lane divided highway with a raised median and enhanced bicycle and pedestrian features, is the first of three phases of a larger reconstruction of the corridor that will add another mile to the Capital Beltway. It is billed as an important upgrade to a road that has seen significant development and lacks the infrastructure to accommodate all its users — many of them pedestrians and bicyclists.

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It also will address traffic safety in an area where six pedestrians have been killed in the past decade; three of the incidents were in 2014 and one in 2017. In recent years, the state has staged a massive education campaign to discourage reckless driving in the corridor, particularly at night, and to urge pedestrians to stop crossing midblock. The state has installed a median fence and pedestrian signals.

Despite a large concentration of pedestrians and heavy reliance on transit along that portion of the road, it has narrow sidewalks and lacks bike paths. In some places, ramps are needed for accessibility. The roadway’s design — two lanes in each direction and a turning lane at the center — produces unavoidable bottlenecks.

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When the project is finished, the road will have two lanes in each direction, a raised 15-foot median with vegetation, a 6-foot-wide bike lane in each direction, and a 5-foot-to-8-foot-wide sidewalk. Crews also will reconstruct sidewalks, curbs and ramps to make them accessible for people with disabilities. The work also includes improved storm drainage.

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“It’s not only going to create an environment where bicyclists and pedestrians have some protections, but it’s also going to have a lot of characteristics to slow traffic down and make it safer for everybody going through it,” State Highway Administrator Greg Slater said.

Officials said the project will be split into two segments to minimize the presence of construction along the entire section of roadway for the whole six years. The southern portion between College Avenue/Regents Drive and Lakeland Road is to be completed by 2021, according to the project timeline. That segment includes the replacement of a major gas line, state officials said. The northern portion, from Lakeland to Maryland 193, will require longer to complete because of the utility infrastructure that needs to be relocated.

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The work on both segments will require lane closures from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and overnight to avoid affecting the morning and afternoon rush hours. Officials said utilities are already working to begin relocation of lines and poles, while major work is expected to begin next year for a 2024 completion.

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By comparison, the light-rail Purple Line between Bethesda in Montgomery County and New Carrollton in Prince George’s County, on which construction began in August 2017, is expected to begin carrying passengers by 2022.

The light-rail project just south of the Route 1 widening project is also expected to affect traffic in the area.

Officials worry that gridlock will get much worse during the construction of the two projects. Today, just one lane closure on Baltimore Avenue creates disruption for miles into the District and all the way north into Beltsville.

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The area in northwestern Prince George’s remains one of the worst choke points for commuters who use the corridor to get to jobs in the District or to major job centers in the area, including University of Maryland facilities. Thousands of cars that travel that part of the road near the U-Md. campus — some 36,000 each day — will be affected by the construction. The number of vehicles using the road is projected to rise to 51,000 by 2040, officials say, as College Park and nearby communities continue to grow.

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Private and public investments in recent years have added new academic facilities, apartments, restaurants and hotels to the Route 1 corridor in College Park. At least six major development projects have been approved or are under construction along Baltimore Avenue, and they will add even more hotel rooms, restaurants and apartments to the area, according to city records.

The 2024 completion date shocked College Park officials, who had been under the impression that the project would be completed by 2022.

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“It’s ridiculous,” Somers, the city manager, said in an interview. He said the city will be encouraging commuters to seek alternate routes, use public transportation, carpool or bike to get around the area.

“We know there are going to be impacts. We can’t fool ourselves,” he said.

Those who frequent the area say they understand why the work is needed: The corridor is in a dense area of College Park with a lot of pedestrians, many of them students, and a growing number of bicyclists who need better infrastructure.