Hagerstown election, major construction projects expected to wrap up in 2024

Some big Hagerstown-area projects are expected to wrap up in the new year.

Those include two sporting complexes, a new parking garage and two new roads.

There's also a city election.

Who will be the city's future leaders?

The mayoral post and all five City Council seats are up for election in 2024.

As of Dec. 21, one person had filed to run for mayor — Bill McIntire.

No one had filed to run for City Council yet.

Current Mayor Tekesha Martinez, a Democrat, announced her intention in July to run for the Congressional 6th District seat being vacated by Democrat David Trone. Trone is running for U.S. Senate after Sen. Ben Cardin announced he would not run for reelection.

The deadline for candidates to file to run in the 2024 election is Feb. 9. The city election is nonpartisan.

Maryland's 'housing crisis': Maryland Housing Secretary Day estimates 96,000-unit housing shortage. Bills aim to help.

Hagerstown Multi–Use Sports and Events Facility on track

After losing a minor league baseball team, the Hagerstown Suns, in 2020, the Hub City will become home to the Flying Boxcars' first season in the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

The team's first home game is scheduled for Friday, May 3.

Construction of the Hagerstown Multi–Use Sports and Events Facility, where the Boxcars will play their home games, is on track to be ready for opening day, said Al Tyler, vice president of a capital projects group for the Maryland Stadium Authority, which is overseeing the project.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and inflationary pressures, the cost of the project increased by $20 million to $90 million, Tyler said. It is being financed through bonds the stadium authority issued, with the state to pay down the debt, Tyler said.

The steel and roofing deck are done for the superstructure along Baltimore Street, grading is being installed for the artificial field, and brick work was underway, Tyler said before Christmas weekend. The batter's eye, foul poles and stadium light poles are up. A lot of work is being done inside as well.

Tyler said the stadium lights will just about contain the light to the ballpark with minimal light carrying outside of the site.

Over 100 workers are involved with the stadium construction, working six days a week, Tyler said. A second shift will be added in the new year, working from about 3-11 p.m., with a lot of work being done indoors.

Turner Construction, based in New York City, is the general contractor on the design-build. Pendulum, based in Kansas City, Mo., designed the facility.

Ownership of the facility will be turned over to the Hagerstown Multi–Use Sports and Events Facility LLC, a nonprofit that the Hagerstown-Washington County Industrial Foundation, also known as CHIEF, created, said Greg Snook. Snook is president and CEO of both CHIEF and the LLC.

Snook said a deal for Downtown Baseball LLC to lease the facility is in the works. Downtown Baseball is a local ownership group that won the franchise expansion request from the Atlantic League for the Flying Boxcars.

HALOS support group: After drugs took their son, a Hagerstown couple launched HALOS to help others cope, heal

A new downtown parking deck

Progress also is being made on the construction of the city's third downtown parking deck. The Hub City Garage is being built in a lot next to Washington County District Court along West Antietam Street.

The five-level garage costs around $11 million and will have about 397 parking spaces, City Engineer Jim Bender said.

The original plan was to have the deck open in time for the Flying Boxcars' first home game. Bender said recently he isn't sure the parking garage will be ready by then. If construction can't be moved along quicker, the deck will likely open in June.

Here's what we know about that gigantic crane

If you've driven west along Dual Highway recently or been downtown, you've likely seen the gigantic crane being used in recent weeks to lift heavy precast concrete pieces of the Hub City Garage into place.

That is a Manitowoc heavy boom crawler crane built in the Greencastle, Pa., area and assembled at the downtown Hagerstown construction site, Callas Contractors Project Manager David Taylor said. It took at least 24 tractor-trailer loads to carry its parts and a 165-ton Grove crane to assemble the Manitowoc crane.

The larger crane weighs over 1 million pounds and can lift 300 tons, Taylor said. Its track is 48 feet long and each track weighs over 50,000 pounds.

The boom assembly includes winches and cables to raise and lower the main boom, Taylor said. Shockey, the Winchester, Va.-based company that manufactured the precast concrete and is erecting the deck, uses the crane to lift 56,000-pound loads of precast concrete.

The top of the crane is visible from about a mile away.

Taylor said the crane is expected to remain on site for at least another couple months, possibly into March.

Trooper's leg amputated: One of WV troopers injured in Sunday shooting suffers amputation

Hagerstown Cultural Trail to fully reopen

Part of the Hagerstown Cultural Trail has been closed to accommodate construction of the downtown multi–use sports and events facility and the parking deck.

The new Baltimore Street crossing for the trail is expected to move closer to South Potomac Street, according to Bender and stadium authority officials.

The goal is to have the part of the trail along the stadium reopen when the stadium opens, Bender said.

Officials aiming to have Field House ready in late 2024

Ground was recently broken on construction of the Hagerstown Field House, a city project to create an indoor sports facility at the site of the former Municipal Stadium. The Suns played at Municipal Stadium for decades.

Project officials are hoping the almost $26 million facility — including design, construction and equipment — will be finished in late 2024 so it can host winter sports programs.

The city is partnering with Eastern Sports Management (ESM), based in Fredericksburg, Va., on the project.

In addition to overseeing construction, ESM is expected to operate the facility's programs. The City Council could vote on a 20-year lease deal with ESM in January.

Hagerstown's 'Mr. Miyagi': Hagerstown's Mr. Miyagi: 'Mr. Jimmy' shares passion for martial arts for three decades

Professional Boulevard bridge, road to open

The long awaited Professional Boulevard connection across Antietam Creek and connecting to Yale Drive is anticipated to open in January, Bender said.

The joint project with Washington County includes a new bridge, new road segments and widening part of the previously existing road to create a four-lane connection from Eastern Boulevard to Yale Drive along the city's eastern edge.

When that opens, motorists will have a new option to get between busy Eastern Boulevard and Robinwood Drive. That includes ambulances getting to Meritus Medical Center.

The four-lane bridge is anticipated to handle an estimated 11,000 vehicles a day, according to an earlier Washington County video presentation.

Bender said there was still some work to do on a traffic signal at Eastern Boulevard and some minor repairs, but the road is expected to open in January.

The latest, and second, phase was expected to cost $6.6 million between the city and county, but county Engineering Director Scott Hobbs said a cost savings is expected. How much money will be saved on that phase had not yet been determined.

In phase 1, a new bridge was built over the creek. That bridge has been ready, but the road on the east side needed to be completed, including paving, so the bridge hasn't been open to vehicular traffic.

The bridge and approaches were built at a cost of $8.9 million using mostly local funding, with $1.1 million in state money for design, Hobbs has said. The county broke ground on the bridge in 2020 and it was completed in 2022.

New connector between Edgewood Drive and Dual Highway to open

Another new connector path for motorists that could open as early as January is the extended Paul Smith Boulevard and the new Lois Harrison Boulevard.

Currwood has been building the Hagerstown Logistics Park with warehouse space on the north side of South Edgewood Drive. To accommodate the truck traffic that will create, the developer has widened Paul Smith Boulevard to four lanes and built the connecting Lois Harrison Boulevard to Dual Highway, Bender said.

There will be new traffic signals at Dual Highway and Lois Harrison Boulevard, as well as at Edgewood and Paul Smith Boulevard.

Bender said the developer is aiming to have the road improvements and signals ready in January.

The city will own those roads.

The late R. Paul Smith was a president of Potomac Edison — now part of First Energy — for many years. Smith was involved in several organizations in Washington and Frederick counties.

Harrison was Smith's daughter and a pioneer for higher education in Washington County. In addition to helping start Hagerstown Junior College — now Hagerstown Community College, she was involved in several other community organizations and was a chair of the Washington County Hospital's Board of Trustees.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: 2024 to bring two Hagerstown sports complexes, new roads, parking deck