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A Sandy Spring intersection with a history of traffic crashes and congestion dating back to the late 1960s, according to nearby residents, is in line for safety improvements by the State Highway Administration.

For nearly four years the Sandy Spring Civic Association has worked with county and state legislators, the Greater Olney Civic Association, Friends House Retirement Community and other organizations to urge state officials to study the intersection of Norwood and Doctor Bird roads (Route 182) in the hopes of making it safer, said civic association corresponding secretary Joy Turner.

The intersection prompted the Sandy Spring Civic Association to establish a Safety and Transportation Committee in 2007. Throughtout the years, civic group members sent traffic reports and crash photographs to the SHA, prompting engineers to study the intersection in 2009.

"Back when that roadway was developed, the volume was still kind of rural," SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar said. "But [the town] more than quadrupled in the last 40 or 50 years."

Some of the planned improvements include adding a left-turn lane on eastbound Doctor Bird Road onto Norwood, a right-turn lane on westbound Doctor Bird Road at the intersection, traffic signals at the intersection, wider road shoulders to accommodate bicyclists on Norwood Road, concrete medians and a multipurpose pedestrian and bicycle path on Doctor Bird.

Contractor bidding is scheduled to begin this summer. Highway officials estimate construction could be completed by the spring or early summer of 2012. The state has allocated $1.5 million for the improvements.

For decades, residents say they have seen crashes and fatalities at the intersection of Norwood and Doctor Bird roads. Brookeville resident Bim Schauffler remembers the raining day in 1967 when his mother's Volkswagen Bus overturned at the curve at that intersection. She survived the crash, but others have not.

Since Jan. 1, 2007, there have been one fatal collision, 15 collisions involving reports of injury and seven collisions involving property damage, according to Montgomery County Police Department 4th District commander Capt. John Damskey.

In February 2008, Young Hee Cho, 62, was driving east on Doctor Bird Road, approaching Norwood Road, when his 2004 Nissan Quest crossed the double-yellow lines into the oncoming lane. His vehicle collided with a 1997 Dodge Caravan traveling west on Doctor Bird, county police reported. Cho was not wearing a seat belt.

Cho died of injuries he suffered in the collision, while the driver of the Dodge Caravan was hospitalized with serious injuries.

"It's taking your life in your hands getting through traffic at the intersection," Schauffler said. "You not only have high volumes of traffic, you have high volumes of inexperienced drivers [from the nearby high schools]."

As growth and development increase in the greater Olney area, traffic improvements are needed more than ever, Turner said.

With three schools surrounding the intersection — Sherwood High School, a few blocks east of where Norwood Road intersections with Olney-Sandy Spring Road (Route 108); Sandy Spring Friends School, just south of where Norwood and Doctor Bird intersect; and Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, a block west of where Doctor Bird intersects with Olney-Sandy Spring Road — as well as two retirement communities — Brooke Grove Retirement Village and Friends House Retirement Community — within a short distance, drivers of all ages and experience add to the traffic levels.

"We were able to ask the State Highway Administration to do a study and ask them to please allow and allot these funds," Turner said. "It took a while, but with persistence and collaboration, we were able to achieve the goal we started in 2007.

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