Meehan Implores SHA To Improve Route 90 Bridge

The Route 90 bridge should be improved before building a new Route 50 bridge, Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan told state transportation officials Tuesday.

That bridge “is the reason I’m here today,” he told Jim Smith, secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, Maryland State Highway Administration administrator Melinda Peters and others during the annual county visit to discuss transportation projects. Route 90, he said, is one of only three access points to the resort and it becomes more and more important every year.

When the Route 50 bridge became stuck in the open position for five hours on a Saturday afternoon this summer, traffic backed up all the way to Berlin and caused problems in West Ocean City. Almost all of the Ocean City ambulances happened to be on the other side of the bridge and, for some period of time, only one remained in the resort, Meehan said.

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