To Whom it May Concern,

This letter will request your assistance in both establishing a scenic bike route, and in helping to avoid Washington County's so-called "improvements" on Marble Quarry Road. This spring,the county intends to replace the Marble Quarry Road bridge closest to Mt. Briar Road, and to straighten out the road around the bridge. Presently, we have a 15 foot-wide, wooden-plank bridge and a curve in the road. The plan is to straighten the road around the bridge, and to replace the bridge with a dual-lane, 30+ foot-wide, concrete bridge.

All of the residents of Marble Quarry Road, and many of our other neighbors and recreational road-users, want the bend in the road and the width of the bridge to remain the same; both of those existing features function well as effective traffic-calming features. We believe the planned changes will increase both the amount of traffic, and the traffic's speed, which is a shame, because Marble Quarry Road is a great biking, walking, and horseback-riding road. The so-called "improvements" will, in fact, actually make the road less safe, and less suitable, for all of these non-motorized activities.

We already met with the Director of Public Works for Washington County (at the bridge itself), and received what turned out to be "lip-service" about considering other engineering approaches for the bridge; but, the bottom line is that the planned approach for building a "double-wide" bridge (on our otherwise single-lane road) is proceeding, and will be implemented soon.

Over the years, we have noticed many bicylists on Marble Quarry Road. We're appealing to you to see if you may have some ideas, or influence, that could help us to preserve the rural character of Marble Quarry Road for bikers, birders, and pedestrians. We hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks for your time and attention.

Please contact clubmail@frederickpedalers.org and we can put you in touch with these folks.

Funny Foto of the Month

As Mr. T said in Rocky III - "There's gonna be a lot of pain."