By Liz Holland

Carroll Street, the busy link between Route 13 and the Riverside traffic circle, is getting the first step of a planned makeover that will tie together five important bikeways in Salisbury.

Striping has begun for the designated cycle track along the north side of the street, but concrete and a landscaped median must wait because prices have increased substantially since the project was first designed, said Will White, the city’s transportation project specialist.

The cost of concrete is up 400 percent and asphalt prices have increased by 200 percent, he said.

“That’s just not happening now,” White said. “There’s no immediate need to move on it while the price is high.”

The hope is that prices will eventually stabilize so that the work can be completed within the $1.2 million allocated for the project.

In the meantime, the city is proceeding with marking a dedicated bike lane on the north side of the street along the Wicomico River. It will tie into existing bikeways on Waverly Drive, Riverside Drive, Division Street and the new pedestrian bridge.

The city also is in the process of finishing up bike lanes on College Avenue and West Road with the same crew working on all three locations, White said.

The Carroll Street project will be similar to work done on Waverly Drive in 2019. The stretch of road between Carroll Street and South Boulevard was part of a city plan to make Salisbury more bicycle-friendly.

The new design there changed the former four lane roadway into two traffic lanes, plus a buffer and two lanes for bikes known as a cycle track.

The city also has made recent improvements to the busy intersection at the end of Riverside Drive by building a new roundabout. The traffic circle now ties in Mill Street, West Carroll Street, Riverside Drive and Camden Avenue – an area that had frequent traffic congestion.

All of the work on Carroll Street and other nearby bikeways is part of the city’s plan to create a network of bicycle routes to safely and easily link residential neighborhoods to shopping and recreation areas.

The Salisbury Bicycle Network Plan was adopted in 2016 to offer an alternative mode of transportation, improve public health and to promote Salisbury as a cycling destination.

The designated routes in the plan eventually will link up with areas outside city limits.