Valerie Noel is on a mission to rid Route 29 of an exit ramp she considers an unnecessary peril.

The Ellicott City resident is gathering support from neighbors to persuade the State Highway Administration to reevaluate the intersection of Route 29 and Interstate 70, where her 19-year-old son, Andrew, was killed in a collision in July.

In her petition to the SHA, Noel states that one of the two exit ramps from Route 29 North to I-70 west requires a dangerous maneuver and should be removed or reconfigured.

"I want to prevent this from happening to anyone else," she said. "To prevent another loss of life and another family from having to suffer this pain.

"You can't make this good, but Andrew was always finding ways to make things right."

To access I-70 west from northbound Route 29, drivers can either take a cloverleaf exit ramp on the right side of the roadway or a left-lane exit ramp that crosses over the southbound lanes of Route 29.

With the latter exit, drivers must wait for a break in traffic on the two southbound lanes before crossing.

Noel's son, Andrew Perry Noel, died at the site of the left-lane exit ramp July 19. He was riding a motorcycle south on Route 29 just after 3 p.m., when a Dodge Durango traveling north on Route 29 turned in front of him as it attempted to access the exit ramp, county police said in a news release about the collision in July.

The driver of the Durango was Columbia resident Robert Neil Mecklenburg, 79, police said.

An investigation is continuing, and no charges have been filed, police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.

David Buck, a spokesman for the State Highway Administration, said SHA is investigating the intersection, as it routinely does any site where a fatal collision occurs.

Buck said SHA is awaiting a final crash report from the Howard County police and expects to release its own study, along with a recommendation about whether or how to address the intersection, by the end of October.

Buck added that SHA traffic engineers spoke with Noel earlier this month and also have heard from other area residents concerned about the intersection. Some have asked for the removal of the left exit ramp, he said, while others have asked about options for making it safer.

The SHA is considering a number of options, Buck said, including leaving the intersection as is, altering the speed limit, adding some sort of traffic signal to the site, or removing one of the exit ramps.

'Live Like Andrew'

Armed with photos of Andrew, and T-shirts and stickers that read "Live Like Andrew," Noel and a group of about 50 of her son's friends held a petition drive outside the Giant supermarket at the Chatham shopping center Aug. 23.

"My goal is to eliminate the option of people turning in front of 55 mile-per-hour traffic -- however they do that," Noel said. "This (intersection) really does affect a lot of people. It could be any of our sons, any of our husbands, any of our mothers. It's not just about Andrew, but of course that's what affected me."

The group collected 1,037 signatures Aug. 23 to add to the roughly 1,200 signatures they'd already gathered, Noel said. She plans to submit the petition to officials in late September, she said, after collecting more signatures Aug. 30 at the SuperFresh on North Ridge Road and Sept. 6 at the Safeway in the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center.

One of the volunteers at the Aug. 23 petition drive, Tommy Carr, 19, a longtime friend of Andrew's, said the left exit ramp is "pointless."

"I find it's dangerous," he said. "I think one death is way too many to begin with."

On the day of the collision, Andrew was heading out to ride his motorcycle with a friend, his mother said.

A 2007 graduate of Mt. Hebron, Andrew Noel attended West Virginia University for a year and had recently enrolled in business classes at Howard Community College, his mother said. His eventual goals included applying to the police academy and eventually working in military special operations -- a career that his mother and friends said would have matched his adventurous nature.

Since her son's death, Noel has established a scholarship fund that will benefit Mt. Hebron students who participate in either band or football, two organizations with which Andrew Noel was involved.

First fatal crash

Since the addition of the left ramp in 2001, Buck said, there have been 10 non-fatal crashes at the site. The July 19 collision, he added, was the first fatality.

The crash data at the site does not indicate that it's a particularly dangerous intersection, Buck said.

"Strictly from an engineering perspective, there's nothing in any way, shape or form that would indicate that anything would need to be done there," he said. "Clearly, you don't ever want something like this (the fatal accident) to happen."

Llewellyn concurred that Howard police statistics "do not show an ongoing pattern of collisions" at the intersection, although further analysis is planned, she said.

When an intersection lends itself to a left-side exit ramp, SHA will add one, Buck said, in order to provide drivers with a straighter pathway to their destination road -- in this case, westbound Interstate 70.

Straight exit ramps are preferable because they allow vehicles to merge at a higher rate of speed than curved cloverleaf exit ramps, which require drivers to decelerate significantly, Buck said.

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user comments (1)

user says...

Mr. Buck obviously has a vested interest in defending the construction of this ramp as he designed it and is currently a state employee. As an Ellicott City resident that travels North to the end of Route 29 and then onto West Route 99 on daily basis; I have several concerns regarding the addition of this new ramp. It is imperative that the State Highway Administration perform a thorough investigation into the driving behaviors and destinations of the population using these dangerous roads/intersections.

Every evening during rush hour I routinely experience drivers exceeding the speed limit as they approach the end of a highway that is not clearly identified to the uninformed (out of state/out of area) driver. This situation is complicated with a choice of ramps to access Westbound I70 that is overused and undersized for the current 2008 traffic patterns that exist due to unchecked growth in the Ellicott City area, as well as the growth patterns in Western Howard County, Carroll County and Frederick County. The state is complicit in this unchecked growth as the Maryland Smart Growth Initiatives have encouraged development in those areas that are serviced with existing water and sewer lines. There are inadequate highways/roads servicing both Carroll and Frederick Counties and the residents of Howard County/Ellicott City are now feeling the brunt of their growth. Commuters routinely travel over formerly rural roads and undersized state roads in order to access their homes in Baltimore County (Windsor Mill area), Carroll County (Eldersburg, etc.) and Frederick County (Mount Airy, etc.). The inadequate number of lanes on Westbound I70 and the tremendous traffic jams on the Northbound lanes of the Baltimore Beltway cause an unnecessary flow of traffic onto another undersized road known as Route 99 (west of Rt. 29) aka Rogers Avenue (east of Rt. 29). The state was tasked with "moving the greatest number of vehicles per hour off of Rt. 29 North and on to Interstate 70 West" so the creation of the Left Turn Ramp onto W I70 was conceived.

A complete traffic study should commence immediately. The current traffic patterns allow for the commuters and freight trucks that need access to I70 West to travel at a much too high rate of speed as they approach the end of Route 29. Inadequate communication is provided to these drivers as to the traffic patterns/decisions that they will be required to make within a 1 mile distance. I don't understand the logic of planning/constructing such an intersection without an appropriate budget that includes Overhead Signage/Rumble Strips/Flashing Traffic Lights/Stop Signs, etc. Likewise, I don't understand the lack of adequate signage on the ramp from eastbound Rt. 40 to southbound Rt. 29. There is a tremendous amount of traffic at all of these intersections and no signage allowing the drivers to anticipate the movement/merging of the vehicles from lanes where they are travelling at 55 MPH or more. The bridges are too small and the lanes do not have adequate acceleration areas for these mergers.

I encourage the State to complete a thorough investigation of the traffic concerns that effect all of us that live in Ellicott City subsequent to the opening of Rt. 100. The number of cars has doubled in the past 10 years but the there has been no additional signage or flashing lights added to aid the drivers. All of the exits/ramps north of Rt. 100 need to be addressed both North and Southbound. There is room for improvement at all of these intersections. Besides that where else in the country have you ever travelled and actually dealt with the END of a major highways? The fact that these highways were never completed is another story that I do not have room for here, but at least give us a chance to navigate these crazy intersections safely! We need instructional signs, rumble strips and flashing lights NOW. The fact that there have been 10 traffic accidents and 1 death at this left turn ramp is a sign that there is obviously a problem. How many accidents and deaths have occurred during the same 7 year time frame at all of the intersections North of Route 100? I would like to see the data confirming that the entire area doesn't warrant a second look by the State Highway Administration. One death is too many and this is just another example of the budget not being large enough to safely complete the construction of our State's roads. We need action NOW! How many more commuters have to pay the ultimate sacrifice before the State steps in and spends the money needed to make these intersections safe? How many insurance claims have to be paid before the State of Maryland steps in and re-evaluates these intersections?

Posted 3:25 PM, 08.28.08

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