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Tag: maryland transportation authority

  • Record-breaking holiday travel is expected in the DC region. Here are some traffic changes – WTOP News

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    AAA is projecting that 2.5 million Marylanders and 3.4 million Virginians will be driving somewhere this week and next during the holidays.

    If you’re traveling on the road over the holiday season, you will certainly not be alone. AAA is expecting records to be broken through New Year’s Day.

    They project that 2.5 million Marylanders and 3.4 million Virginians will be driving somewhere this week and the next. Experts are crediting lower gas prices as a motivating factor to hit the road over the holiday season.

    “There’s going to be more traffic on the roadway. Obviously, it’s easier to travel. We did see that around Thanksgiving, during that holiday,” Charlie Gischlar, deputy director of communications with the Maryland State Highway Administration, told WTOP. “Just expect a lot of company on the roadways, and always give yourself plenty of time.”

    Gischlar added that MDOT-SHA are doing some things to help relieve congestion.

    To help ease the burden, there will be some traffic changes in the D.C. region to help bring the holiday spirit.

    Maryland

    In Maryland, there will be no lane closures for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for Dec. 24-26 and Jan. 1, according to the state’s transportation authority.

    On Monday and Tuesday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., the westbound span could be closed due to maintenance work. As a result, there will be two-way traffic on the eastbound span.

    Also on Monday and Tuesday, one lane of the eastbound span could be closed due to maintenance work from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

    “We also enhance our highway patrollers in a lot of areas that are really heavy because they can get on the scene quicker, remove disabled vehicle debris or help clear crashes to the shoulder and get those lanes open as soon as possible,” Gischlar said. “Those are some of the things that we’re doing to try to get out of people’s way and help keep traffic moving around the holidays.”

    The westbound span could be closed for the following days and times:

    • Saturday, Dec. 27 — 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
    • Sunday, Dec. 28 — 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
    • Monday, Dec. 29, and Tuesday, Dec. 30 — 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
    • Friday, Jan. 2 — 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.
    • Saturday, Jan. 3 — 8 p.m. to 9 a.m.

    The eastbound span could be closed for the following days and times:

    • Monday, Dec. 29, and Tuesday, Dec. 30 — 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
    • Friday, Jan. 2 — 9 a.m. to noon

    Virginia

    In Virginia, the state’s department of transportation will make life easier for its resident travelers.

    A lot of the highway work zones will be suspended, along with the temporary lane closures on Virginia’s interstates and major roads being lifted from noon on Wednesday to noon on Friday, and from noon on Wednesday, Dec. 31, to noon on Friday, Jan. 2.

    But travelers could come across semi-permanent work zones that will stay in place, despite the lifted lane closures.

    Virginia residents can look to VDOT’s travel advisories website for any travel alerts. They can also check out the free mobile 511 app.

    Tips on driving safely on the roadways during the holidays include putting on your seat belt, not looking at your phone while driving and leaving early for extra time to get to your destination.

    WTOP’s Alan Etter contributed to this story.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Tadiwos Abedje

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  • Cost projection for new Key Bridge doubles, with expected opening far later than first hoped – WTOP News

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    Maryland officials updated their cost estimate range for a new bridge to between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion. The latest estimates come a day before the National Transportation Safety Board’s hearing on the 2024 collapse.

    Rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge is going to cost a lot more, and take a lot longer, than originally hoped.

    The Maryland Transportation Authority said Monday its board is updating its cost estimate range for the new bridge as $4.3-$5.2 billion — well over double the state’s initial estimate of around $2 billion.

    In a news release, the agency said it now anticipates the bridge will open to traffic in late 2030, rather than the initial projection of 2028.

    The initial estimates were made less than two weeks after a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, causing the structure to plummet into the Patapsco River and killing six construction workers who were on the bridge.

    “A preliminary estimate was needed to request federal emergency relief funding for immediate cleanup and recovery,” MDTA Executive Director Bruce Gartner said in a news release. “Typically, a cost estimate would not be provided on a project of this size until much later in the design process.”

    Since that initial estimate, material costs have increased dramatically, according to the agency. Advanced design of the bridge and preconstruction activities gave the Maryland Transportation Authority more data to inform its updated projection.

    Construction company Kiewit is leading the rebuild project.

    Also contributing to the increased cost are efforts to prevent a repeat of March 26, 2024.

    “The updated cost range and schedule are directly correlated to increased material costs and to a robust pier protection system designed to protect the new Key Bridge and reduce the likelihood of a future ship strike to the bridge’s foundational piers,” Acting Transportation Secretary and MDTA Chair Samantha Biddle said.

    The protective fenders planned for the new bridge are larger than a football field, which was not accounted for in the preliminary estimate, according to the agency.

    “Just as families across the country are dealing with the reality of increased costs, so is Maryland. Trade policies out of Washington, D.C. have raised prices on everything — including essential materials we need in order to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Still, despite this new economic reality, our resolve is unwavering,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement Monday.

    In its news release, the transportation authority pointed to the American Relief Act, which authorized more than $8 billion for the Emergency Relief Program and committed to fully funding the Key Bridge replacement.

    President Donald Trump has signaled he may revisit that commitment, which was made under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

    Moore said state officials will continue working with the Trump administration to “find ways to reduce costs and rebuild faster.”

    Efforts in court to win damages from the owner and manager of the container ship that brought down the bridge are ongoing and could last years. Those funds would go toward the bridge’s reconstruction, the transportation authority said.

    “We continue to move forward in our efforts to pursue litigation against those responsible, so taxpayers aren’t on the hook,” Moore said.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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  • Pivotal tests for Md.’s next Key Bridge are about to get underway – WTOP News

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    Key testing for the new Baltimore Key Bridge is underway, and the hope is demolition of the old, collapsed bridge will be done soon and the new bridge will be done in 2028.

    Construction is underway on the new Key Bridge in Baltimore, after the original collapsed in March 2024.
    (WTOP/John Domen)

    WTOP/John Domen

    construction rig to build new bridge in water
    Construction is underway on the new Key Bridge in Baltimore, after the original collapsed in March 2024.
    (WTOP/John Domen)

    WTOP/John Domen

    steel pile sticking out of water
    A steel pile to support a bridge is seen sticking out of the water in Baltimore, Maryland, at the site of the Key Bridge.
    (WTOP/John Domen)

    WTOP/John Domen

    construction rig to build new bridge in water
    Construction is underway on the new Key Bridge in Baltimore, after the original collapsed in March 2024.
    (WTOP/John Domen)

    WTOP/John Domen

    construction takes place in water on new bridge
    Construction is underway on the new Key Bridge in Baltimore, after the original collapsed in March 2024.
    (WTOP/John Domen)

    WTOP/John Domen

    There are two floating construction sites set up inside the gap where Baltimore’s Key Bridge used to stand. And as crews continue to dismantle the old bridge — which is about halfway done — test pilings are being put in place that could support the next bridge, if those tests go as planned.

    Some of the more than 200 feet-long piles are still on the flotilla, but some are in the water already.

    Most of those piles can’t be seen from the surface. The water there is about 30 feet deep, and those piles then have to be drilled down about 60 feet into the soupy mud on the bottom. Getting through the mud isn’t the issue; it’s the 60 feet or so of hard rock underneath the mud that also has to be drilled into.

    “We know the piles can carry the load just based on if it’s steel,” said Brian Wolfe, the director of project development for the Maryland Transportation Authority. “What’s unknown is that river bottom. We know it’s hard, we’ve done testing on it. This is to verify how far down do we need to drive those piles into it in order to get the load that we need to carry the bridge.”

    Next month, a giant steel template, about 65 feet by 65 feet, will be put on top of the pilings that are in the water. Then, about 10 million pounds of force will be applied to them.

    Right now, the engineers overseeing the project are confident that everything will hold up the way it’s supposed to — they just won’t move ahead without being certain.

    “We don’t want to make an assumption that doesn’t prove out to be true, and then have all of the material and men and equipment show up to do this at full scale,” said Jason Stolicny, who works within the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration. “So this is really ensuring that, at a small scale, our assumptions are correct, and then we move on to that full-scale operation.”

    If next month’s testing goes well, they can start putting the permanent pilings in before the end of the year, or shortly after. Though at least some of the test pilings in there now might also be part of the new permanent structure.

    So where do things stand?

    Demolition of the old bridge is about halfway complete. While several spans of the bridge remain over the water, the focus is more on the pieces of bridge that are on land right now.

    “The critical demolition activities is actually the land, and we’re advancing that now because we’re focusing on the critical work early. And the equipment required to remove the bridge over land is not the same as what’s required to remove it over water,” Stolicny said. “So in order to minimize separate mobilizations of equipment, we’re focusing on that land removal and the portion over water will stay for a bit as we advance into construction.”

    He said the entire bridge deck has been removed — 10,000 of tons of material — but only about 20% of the steel.

    “This is an activity that’s going to run into the early 2026 as far as the demolition work on the existing bridge,” Stolicny said.

    Officials initially estimated the new bridge would be finished in 2028, and it’s still possible it will be. But state officials are no longer willing to say that’s definitely going to be the case.

    “We are moving at breakneck speed on delivering this project,” MDTA Chief Engineer James Harkness said. “We’ve taken the steps that we’ve outlined here, with our preconstruction activities, with our demolition activities on our test pile and upcoming other trestle installation. We’re advancing those while we’re still designing, in the effort to continue to advance schedule as quickly as possible.”

    While it’s not clear exactly when permanent construction will begin, the hope is that it will happen either by the very end of 2025 or early into 2026.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    John Domen

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  • Maryland officials reassure public Bay Bridge is safe after social media picture prompts questions – WTOP News

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    Maryland transportation leaders are reassuring the public that it’s safe to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, after a picture circulating on social media prompted some drivers to question whether there was an infrastructure issue.

    Maryland transportation leaders are reassuring the public that it’s safe to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, after a picture circulating on social media prompted some drivers to question whether there was an infrastructure issue.

    The image, which Kimberly Hutson told WJZ News her husband took while he was fishing last weekend, includes a yellow circle drawn around a support structure that looks to be off-center. It shows a section of bridge’s westbound span.

    But the Maryland Transportation Authority said in a statement that it inspected the pier and “confirmed that there is no indication of movement or distress at the location.”

    The agency said the picture of the pier cap looks to be off center, but the bridge girders, “the key structural components supporting the span — are aligned and centered with the pier cap.”

    Positioning hasn’t changed since the bridge’s construction, the statement said.

    “We want to reassure the public that both spans of the bridge are safe,” the agency said.

    MDTA said it regularly conducts condition inspections on all of its facilities, “and ensuring the safety of these critical structures is the MDTA’s highest priority.”

    The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is an hour south of where the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge stands in Baltimore.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Maryland Transportation Secretary pledges to rebuild ‘bridge that meets current standards’ – WTOP News

    Maryland Transportation Secretary pledges to rebuild ‘bridge that meets current standards’ – WTOP News

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    Thursday’s meeting of the Maryland Transportation Authority opened with a recognition of the six construction workers on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed last week.

    Thursday’s meeting of the Maryland Transportation Authority opened with a recognition of the six construction workers who were killed on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed last week.

    Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld told the board members present, “Tuesday, March 26, will forever be marked in our hearts and minds as a tragic course of events on so many levels.”

    Referring to the families of those who lost their lives, Wiedefeld said, “It’s hard to fathom how they are grieving and processing such tremendous loss.”

    He then asked for a moment of silence.

    During the course of the meeting, there was an update on the recovery and rebuilding plans.

    Lt. Colonel Corey McKenzie with the MDTA Police said along with keeping two vessels in the water around the clock to support efforts to clear debris, “Certainly, we continue to mourn the loss of the six lives [of the construction workers], and our number one priority remains to do whatever we can to help recover the four remaining victims that have been lost.”

    MDTA board member Cynthia Penny-Ardinger said the collapse of the bridge and the lives lost were “an unimaginable loss” and asked, “Have we given any thought as to what it’s going to take to build the new bridge?”

    Wiedefeld said there’s been an effort to expedite the process of designing and building a new bridge, and said there are a number of issues, including funding issues that have to be addressed.

    “What we will do, though, is rebuild a bridge that meets current standards,” Wiedefeld noted, adding that the Key Bridge was nearly 50 years old.

    The National Transportation Safety Board has reported the Key Bridge was among more than 17,000 “fracture-critical” bridges in the United States. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said last week that investigators will request and review the inspection reports for the Key Bridge going back 10 years.

    Chief engineer for the MDTA James Harkness told the board the state has received an initial $60 million in emergency relief funding from the Biden Administration.

    Harkness said MDTA has started initial efforts to look at how it can move forward with the design and construction of a new bridge.

    He said they hoped to move as quickly as possible.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Kate Ryan

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