New Path Planned for Underneath Hanover Street in Port Covington

In an effort to improve pedestrian access to Port Covington, Sagamore Development Company, the team behind the 235-acre Port Covington redevelopment, is planning a new bicycle and pedestrian path underneath S. Hanover St. The path will connect to The Baltimore Sun’s Sun Park facility and the surrounding properties.

S. Hanover St. becomes a bridge over the CSX train tracks between W. McComas St. and W. Dickman St. This section of S. Hanover St., which also includes on- and off-ramps from I-95, has been described by many in the area as difficult and dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.

The new path will connect to an existing path that Sagamore began construction on last year. Construction and completion of this existing path has been delayed due to a portion that crosses over the CSX tracks. This path begins at W. McComas St. just east of Schuster Concrete near Swann Park, runs alongside the South Hanover Street bridge over the train tracks, and then connects with City Garage along W. Dickman. In coordination with CSX, Sagamore is expecting to complete the final connection over the CSX tracks this spring.

The design of the new path extension underneath S. Hanover St. is currently in planning.

On behalf of the Port Covington Development Team, Alex Jackson of Maroon PR told SouthBMore.com that the new path will “improve access to Port Covington for all.”

Sagamore also added 0.7 miles of a partially protected, on-street cycle track along Cromwell St. in Port Covington last year.

The new paths are funded by Sagamore Development Company.

This new path system will also be used for Maryland SPCA’s Festival for the Animals on May 5th. The festival will include a one-mile walk, pet competitions, adoptable pets, live music, a beer garden, and food vendors. This is the first time Festival for the Animals will take place in Port Covington. The event is expected to draw more than 3,000 attendees.

The Baltimore Sun currently runs a printing facility at its Sun Park building in Port Covington. The company is expected to move its approximately 300 employees from its Calvert St. building Downtown to a renovated space at Sun Park this summer. Employees who work in areas such as journalism, sales, circulation, finance, human resources, and marketing will join the printing team in Port Covington. This announcement was made in January.

Sun Park is now owned by Sagamore Development, which purchased the building and surrounding land from Tribune Media in 2014 for $46.5 million. The Baltimore Sun Media Group has a “long-term lease” on its building, but new infrastructure work will begin on the land surrounding Sun Park this year. This infrastructure work will make way for new buildings in Sagamore’s Port Covington redevelopment.

Purple St. is also expected to begin construction this year. Purple St. will provide access to The Baltimore Sun building and new parking lots which are planned west of the building. Purple St. will be a northern continuation of Insulator Dr. at a newly-built intersection at Cromwell St.  The design of the intersection rebuild started last August and is expected to be submitted to Baltimore City for approval by February.

Chapter 1 of infrastructure improvements is also expected to begin this year on land surrounding Sun Park to the south and east.

Rendering of the proposed new infrastructure around Sun Park from Sagamore Development Company 

About the Author: Kevin Lynch

Founder and Publisher of SouthBmore.com, longtime resident of South Baltimore, and a graduate of Towson University. Diehard Ravens and O's fan, father of three, amateur pizza chef, skateboarder, and "bar food" foodie. Email me at Kevin@InceptMM.com and follow me on Twitter at @SoBoKevin.