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Bowie staff present 2025 transportation priority recommendations; council presses to keep US 301, Church Road on list
Summary
Planning staff reviewed the city’s recommended transportation priority list for state and county projects; councilmembers pressed to retain US 301 items and to add a short missing link on Church Road to improve safety and traffic flow.
Planning staff reviewed the City of Bowie’s draft 2025 transportation priority list on Sept. 2, summarizing state and county projects the city plans to endorse in letters to the Maryland Department of Transportation and Prince George’s County.
Richard Hall, the city’s director of planning and sustainability, said the draft list is similar to last year’s recommendations because available funding remains limited. Hall highlighted two state projects—MD 197 upgrades from US 50 toward MD 450 and MD 450 multimodal improvements between Stonybrook Drive and Racetrack Road—and county priorities including Church Road improvements and trail projects. Hall described the process steps for transportation projects (planning, design/engineering, right-of-way, construction) and noted some projects are partly engineered while others are on hold or lack funding.
Councilmembers requested the draft letter emphasize local priorities that they said should not be allowed to slip from the list. Several councilmembers urged staff to keep US 301 projects on the city list and to press state and county partners for progress; one councilmember noted ongoing construction south of Central Avenue and said widening elsewhere could increase congestion in Bowie if improvements do not continue through the city. Councilmembers also asked staff to press Prince George’s County to complete a roughly 0.43-mile missing link on Church Road (a county road) where two new sections do not connect; a councilmember called that half-mile segment “the only entity” that can complete the link because property in the corridor is not likely to be developed by a private party.
Hall said staff will prepare the letter based on council direction. Specific recommended items in the draft memo included advancing MD 197 (US 50 to MD 450) to right-of-way acquisition and moving MD 450 from design to fund construction, adding Church Road from MD 214 to MD 450 for design/engineering and adding bike/ped facilities where warranted, and continuing county funding for Racetrack Road improvements with design finishing this year and construction currently scheduled for 2028. Hall also summarized trail and sidewalk priorities, connections to the Bowie Heritage Trail, and a county downtown circulator/microtransit pilot for the Blue Town Center.
Councilmembers asked staff to provide additional cost information for specific projects (for example, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission match/cap for a sidewalk project) and to add language about 301. The mayor indicated staff would work with council to ensure the letter includes the council’s specific segments and safety priorities; staff said they will include more detail where council requests it.
Ending: Staff will finalize the city’s transportation priority letter to the state and county, adding council direction to emphasize US 301 concerns, the Church Road missing link and requested cost/match information. The final letter will be transmitted to MDOT and Prince George’s County per the annual process.
