Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Dist. 26) is calling for state and Prince George’s County officials to help funnel infrastructure improvements to a major Oxon Hill roadway, in light of recently announced plans to bring an 80-tenant outlet mall and a Walmart to the area surrounding National Harbor.

But county officials and some community groups argued that the additions near Indian Head Highway/Route 210 and several other highways would not cause as much additional traffic as Muse suggests, lessening the immediate need for planned road-widening and the addition of exits and overpasses.

Muse, of Fort Washington, argues the highway is already over capacity.

“Residents call me and tell me how what should be an eight-minute drive to or from work to their home takes 35 to 40 minutes,” Muse said. “We need to make sure these projects [Peterson’s developments and infrastructure improvements] go hand-in-hand.”

According to the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation, while Indian Head Highway had been No. 2 last year on the county’s list of priorities for infrastructure improvements submitted to the Maryland State Highway Administration, the project was bumped to No. 4 earlier this year.

Susan Hubbard, a DPWT spokeswoman, said in a statement that Indian Head Highway was moved down on the list because “design did not progress and construction funding was not identified by the state to move this project forward,” and other projects had been more adequately planned and fully funded.

William Cavitt, a Fort Washington resident and vice president of the Indian Head Highway Area Action Council, said the planned improvements to the road, which would remove traffic lights and intersections in favor of exits and overpasses, would only move down the bottleneck that now begins at the intersection of Route 210 and Kerby Hill/Livingston Road to the next set of stop lights.

“Whichever intersection [becomes the first along Indian Head Highway with traffic lights] will cause a domino effect to traffic flow,” Cavitt said. “The long-term impact of eliminating the traffic lights doesn’t solve the fundamental problem, which is the need for mass transit.”

Cavitt added that the presence of new development in the form of an outlet center would likely not drastically affect the traffic along Indian Head Highway because of its close proximity to a number of other major highways, including interstates 495 and 295 and Oxon Hill Road.

Hubbard said that much of the traffic that would be heading to the outlets is the same traffic that heads from southern Maryland along 210 to get to and from work, thereby not affecting weekday traffic.

Muse disputes DPWT’s argument, saying the new outlets, like National Harbor, will attract a lot more people than just residents of Prince George’s County and southern Maryland.

“People will be travelling from as far as Annapolis and Alexandria [in Virginia],” Muse said. “We saw a tremendous increase in traffic when National Harbor opened. We all saw that, so how can you predict that people will only go to the mall on the weekends, and how can you predict only people from Prince George’s and Charles County will use it?”

ewagner@gazette.net