PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. (Feb. 20, 2009)—Calvert County’s Lusby Southern Connector Boulevard project has won a 2008 Maryland Quality Initiative (MdQI) Award of Excellence for roadway engineering. The award was presented at the MdQI annual conference in Baltimore Feb. 4-5.
The award was given for consultant highway design in the engineering category for roadways. Terry P. Carlson, P.E., Calvert County Director of Public Works, led the project for the county in conjunction with consultant engineers Wallace, Montgomery and Associates. The $20-million, 18-acre project was the largest single public works project undertaken in Calvert County’s history. Facchina Construction Company, Inc. was the construction contractor on the job.
Lusby Southern Connector Boulevard, part of the Lusby Town Center Master Plan, is a 1.02-mile east-west connection linking Rt. 760/Rousby Hall Road with Rt. 765/H.G. Trueman Road and Rt. 2/4 (Solomons Island Road) south of the Lusby Town Center. The roadway was built to support the development of the town center, address local congestion, enhance connectivity, improve emergency response capabilities in southern Calvert County and to consolidate existing access points. It was designed and constructed in coordination with an adjacent Maryland State Highway Administration roundabout project. The construction for both the County portion of the road and the State roundabout are complete and came in under budget and ahead of schedule. Carlson served as project engineer on this project from its inception 20 years ago to completion in the fall of 2008.
The design and construction teams faced major challenges including maintenance of traffic at Mill Creek Middle School and Patuxent High School; several wetland crossings; two major stream crossings; design and construction of screening walls adjacent to the Chesapeake Woods subdivision; right-of-way acquisition of 12 individual properties; design and construction of five stormwater management facilities; and numerous utility relocations.
MdQI is a cooperative effort by Maryland's highway industry dedicated to the continuous quality improvement in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of Maryland's highway system. Annually, MdQI evaluates projects completed in the previous year and presents Awards of Excellence in various categories. To learn more about MdQI, visit http://mdqi.org/.