BRANDYWINE, Md. — A traffic nightmare ties up roads all day long for some people living in one Brandywine community, and now they're pleading for action. After a closed warehouse reopened as a mail distribution center, neighbors are concerned for their safety in the Timothy Branch community.
On Mattawoman Drive sits the newly developed Timothy Branch community. It’s filled with new townhomes and condos and is also the home to a warehouse operated by the United States Postal Service.
“This has recently just started within the last couple of weeks and this is like outrageous,” DeMarques Coleman said.
Coleman is a first-time homeowner and he was looking forward to living in this relatively new neighborhood. Coleman said the experience has been sullied because of the noise from the semitractor-trailers coming in and out of the community.
“(From) 5:00 in the morning to midnight, we just having a big safety issue for our kids in the community. We have a little bit of elderly people that just want to walk; you can barely hear yourself think. So, for us that are still working from home, it's just a huge inconvenience,” he said.
He's not alone in his frustration. Rita Robinson said she and her family chose this neighborhood when the warehouse was unoccupied.
“An empty warehouse, it was empty for years. It opened up again (and) it's a 24-hour facility and it's just nonstop,” Robinson said.
The traffic mayhem the trucks are causing is just a portion of Karmen Lewis’ concerns.
“It's not about inconvenience. It's about safety. A light pole was knocked out. We have school buses that are trying to come into the community and take our children to school that are late because of the traffic that are coming in,” Lewis said.
The postal service declined WUSA9's request for an in-person interview, but sent this statement:
"Due to a sudden and significant increase of inbound trailers, we are experiencing a temporary back-up of trailers at our Brandywine, Maryland Surface Transfer Center. This situation should be resolved by tomorrow. In the interim, alternative staging sites have been identified to re-route a majority of the backed-up trailers. We remain mindful of customers who live in the immediate vicinity and appreciate their patience and understanding."
Coleman said he’s been hoping for more communication from the facility before it got to this point.
“We're in the holiday spirit. So, I definitely want people to get their mail, get their presents and those things such as that, but we also in our community, we want a peace of life,” Coleman added.