Study finds fault with Campus Dr.

University administrators opposed to a light-rail transit line running along Campus Drive received fresh evidence supporting their pedestrian safety concerns after an independent engineering review they commissioned concluded the route was "not optimal."

The report does not, however, recommend an alternative route for the Purple Line, a $1.7 billion state project that would run from Bethesda to New Carrollton, connecting Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Maryland Transit Administration planners said Campus Drive remains the best choice.

"We believe the Campus Drive alignment is optimal," Henry Kay, the Purple Line project's deputy administrator for planning and engineering, said of the report's conclusion. "We don't feel it's perfect, however. There are no perfect alignments because everyone takes up some space and uses that space. So it's a matter of balancing costs and impacts."

The report, from engineering firm Hatch Mott MacDonald, said that light-rail trains traveling downhill on Campus Drive's 6 percent grade do not brake as effectively as buses — a problem on a route that runs in front of Stamp Student Union — as well as that the bells and horns train operators use to alert pedestrians could disrupt nearby classes and that electromagnetic interference and vibrations could affect lab equipment in research buildings.

"The report concludes that while individual elements are not fatal design flaws, the combination of those elements creates cause for concern," HMM engineer Michael Loehr wrote in an e-mail.

The university administration has proposed having the Purple Line run partially underground — an option the MTA had deemed too expensive.

The engineering review estimates that an alternative alignment would cost between $42 million and $51 million more than the Campus Drive alignment.

The report mentions another route the university has put forward, which would follow Preinkert and Chapel drives, running between the South Campus Dining Hall and LeFrak Hall, but notes only that such an alignment would have pros and cons.

Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie declined to comment on the report, but Capital Projects Director Carlo Colella, who helped Wylie hire the consultant, said having an independent study of the alignment by a third party would help assess the alignment's potential problems.

"I'm sure that there's a lot of issues that need to be addressed with a project as big as the Purple Line," Colella said. But, he added, "the safety, the electromagnetic interference, the vibrations, the noise — all of those factors can be addressed regardless of whatever alignment is chosen, whether it's Campus Drive or some other variation."

Kay agreed that the issues in the report can be effectively addressed and that he wished the consultant had worked with the MTA in producing its report, which he said used outdated premises and data.

The MTA already studied the electromagnetic issue extensively with the university, Kay said, and planners there are eager to work with the university to also study other issues such as the effects of vibrations.

The MTA also asserted in its response to the revised report that its light-rail cars could brake just as effectively as buses, even when traveling downhill, and proposed reducing train speeds to 15 mph on Campus Drive — 5 mph below the street's posted speed limit.

Kay said with the MTA's knowledge and experience with light-rail lines in similar pedestrian-heavy settings, pedestrian safety should not be a serious concern.

"The university is a special campus and it deserves a lot of special consideration and thought, but [the Purple Line] can be made to be safe for pedestrians," Kay said. "The report suggests that students are a special population that would somehow have more challenges crossing during traffic, but students successfully cross Campus Drive every day."

The university and MTA agree the Purple Line should come to the campus, and officials said they expect to reach an agreement on the details of exactly where.

"We want a solution that works for everyone," Colella said. "As long as the concerns of the university will be addressed, I think the administration will be satisfied no matter what the alignment."

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