Highway

Traffic is backed up on Interstate 70 west near the 23-mile marker while road crews clear up debris in the road, a Washington County Emergency Services dispatcher said. The 23-mile marker is just west of the I-70 interchange with Md. 63 north of Williamsport.

A Maryland State Highway Administration crew was called out Sunday morning to repair a growing pothole and a crack in the slow lane of westbound Interstate 70, east of the bridge over Black Rock Road, according to Maryland State Police and Washington County Emergency Services. The pothole east of Hagerstown had not become a sinkhole yet, state police said around 11:20 a.m. Sunday. The hole was about 18 inches in diameter and 10 inches deep, according to a 911 supervisor.

By CLYDE FORD Staff Writer, Charles Town CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia Division of Highway officials met Thursday with Jefferson County Commissioners to go over the latest proposed route for a new W.Va. 9. Highway officials said the latest proposal, a four-lane road that will generally track the current W.Va. 9 corridor between Charles Town and Martinsburg, W.Va., will spare historic properties and more homes and businesses than an earlier route. But Jefferson County Commissioner Edgar Ridgeway, whose home may be in the path of the project, criticized the highway officials for not looking closely enough at alternative routes.

WILLIAMSPORT -- A tractor-trailer accident on northbound Interstate 81 near Williamsport created traffic problems Friday morning. The accident, reported around 7 a.m., caused property damage and left a tractor-trailer on its side, a Washington County Emergency Services dispatcher said. The right northbound lane and shoulder of the highway at the 1.5-mile mark were closed for several hours, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation. Traffic was backed up several miles into West Virginia.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - The Jefferson County Commission on Thursday signed a resolution supporting the widening of W.Va. 9 to a four-lane highway. The resolution was similar to one passed recently by the Berkeley County Commission, said Commissioner Gregory Lance. Commissioner Edgar Ridgeway opposed the resolution, Lance said.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - Though paving on the four-lane W.Va. 9 widening project has been shut down for the winter season, the contractor awarded the first section of road construction in Berkeley County is preparing to begin work, Division of Highways Area Engineer William "Bill" Shanklin said Friday. Nearly half of the paving work has been completed on three sections of road in Jefferson County, but highway officials have blocked off the area for the winter to keep unauthorized vehicles out because it is not safe for them to be there, Shanklin said.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Motorists fuming about congestion on W.Va. 9 in the Bardane area can actually see relief coming as they make their way down the two-lane road. Running parallel to the existing W.Va. 9 is the new four-lane W.Va. 9. It's hard to miss the new road with its light-colored concrete lanes winding through the countryside. Most of the concrete for the new road from the northern end of the Charles Town Bypass to Kearneysville has been poured and that section of the much-anticipated highway will be the first section to be opened to the public, said Bob Amtower, district manager for the District 5 office of the Department of Highways.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A $2 million study will determine the feasibility of widening Interstate 81 to six lanes from the Maryland/Pennsylvania state line to north of Harrisburg, Pa. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation recently signed a contract with a Philadelphia-based consultant to begin the 24-month study. The study will evaluate the potential of widening the existing four-lane highway to six lanes, focusing on widening within the existing right-of-way and lengthening acceleration/deceleration lanes, said State Sen. Terry Punt, R-Franklin.

A helicopter has been called to a single-vehicle accident that was reported at about 1 p.m. Thursday near Hancock, a Washington County Emergency Services supervisor said. The supervisor said the accident occurred at the No. 1 exit from Interstate 70, which is where U.S. 522 and the highway intersect. One lane of U.S. 522 was been shut down to traffic. Further details were not immediately available.

A Germantown, Md., woman was thrown from the vehicle she was driving on Interstate 81 Monday after crashing near the exit for Hedgesville, W.Va., the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department said. Linda Overstreet, 51, was taken to City Hospital in Martinsburg and then flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after being found lying on the ground near exit 16, according to police and emergency officials. Overstreet was not listed as a patient at the hospital as of 5 p.m., an Inova Fairfax Hospital spokesman said.

The site plan for a new McDonald's restaurant site in Martinsburg's north end received conditional approval Wednesday from the Martinsburg Planning Commission. The 4,350-square foot restaurant is proposed to be built in the Old Courthouse Square shopping center along Edwin Miller Boulevard. It would replace the current McDonald's at the intersection of Eagle School and East roads. The approval was made contingent upon the state Division of Highways' final approval of a traffic impact study conducted in the vicinity of the proposed restaurant site.

A man made off with an undisclosed amount of money following a robbery at Brother's Pizza Express at 1732 Dual Highway Tuesday afternoon, said Sgt. John Lehman of the Hagerstown Police Department. The man showed a handgun during the 3:50 p.m. robbery and escaped in a vehicle, Lehman said. No one was hurt Lehman said. Lehman declined to give more specifics of the robbery Tuesday night because of an ongoing investigation.

Authorities are expected to reopen Dual Highway soon after they responded to the 1600 block of the road for a smoke condition in a house, according to a Washington County 911 supervisor. It turned out the problem was a furnace malfunction, the supervisor said. There was no fire in the house and no one was hurt, the supervisor said. The intersection of Dual Highway and Edgewood Drive was shut down to allow crews access to the home, the supervisor said about 2 p.m. The call for the investigation went out at 1:42 p.m.

A Germantown, Md., woman was thrown from the vehicle she was driving on Interstate 81 Monday after crashing near the exit for Hedgesville, W.Va., the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department said. Linda Overstreet, 51, was taken to City Hospital in Martinsburg and then flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after being found lying on the ground near exit 16, according to police and emergency officials. Overstreet was not listed as a patient at the hospital as of 5 p.m., an Inova Fairfax Hospital spokesman said.

A man who was critically injured when he was stabbed in the neck early Saturday in the parking lot of Divi's nightclub is expected to survive, a Hagerstown Police Department spokesman said Sunday night. Sgt. John Lehman said he spoke to the man Saturday. He said the man came through surgery, and was talking and alert. Another man was stabbed in the chest at the club at 431 Dual Highway, but his injury was not life-threatening, police said. Police said the incident happened Saturday shortly before 2 a.m., when a fight involving several people started in the parking lot. When police arrived, they said they discovered that two men had been stabbed.

MERCERSBURG, Pa. - A tractor-trailer hit a highway route sign on South Main Street at 11:46 p.m. Tuesday, Mercersburg police said in a news release. Gurpreet Singh, 23, of California, was cited for causing an accident involving damage to unattended property, police said. Police said Singh also hit a reflective pole sign on Constitution Avenue while backing up his tractor-trailer. The impact punctured a fuel tank on the vehicle, causing it to leak diesel fuel.

A helicopter has been called to a single-vehicle accident that was reported at about 1 p.m. Thursday near Hancock, a Washington County Emergency Services supervisor said. The supervisor said the accident occurred at the No. 1 exit from Interstate 70, which is where U.S. 522 and the highway intersect. One lane of U.S. 522 was been shut down to traffic. Further details were not immediately available.

A 60-year-old man was struck by a vehicle Monday evening in the 1400 block of Dual Highway, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said. Deputy 1st Class Carly Hose said that William Kenneth Mills Jr. walked into the path of a Buick sedan at about 7 p.m. on the stretch of Dual Highway east of the intersection with Mt. Aetna Road. She said Mills was taken to Meritus Medical Center east of Hagerstown to be treated for minor injuries. No damage was done to the Buick. Hose said Mills was found to be at fault for the accident.

A bill introduced by Del. Neil Parrott, R-Washington, in the current session of the General Assembly seeks to give the State Highway Administration the ability to raise the maximum speed limit on interstates, state expressways and some other highways to 70 miles an hour. Parrott, who is a Republican, is a primary sponsor of the bill with Del. Aruna Miller, a Democrat from Montgomery County. “This bill is going to increase the cap. So the State Highway [the SHA]… if they do a speed study … will have the flexibility to raise the speed limits,” Parrott said.

Five vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction crash in the 1300 block of Dual Highway Thursday evening, officials said. The crash occurred about 5:41 p.m. in front of the Sharrett car dealership when a vehicle slowed down for another vehicle in one of the eastbound lanes on Dual Highway, said Deputy J. Kuhnke of the Washington County Sheriff's Office. A vehicle following close behind the vehicle that slowed down struck the rear of the first vehicle, Kuhnke said. Then the other remaining eastbound vehicles became involved in the crash in a similar fashion, Kuhnke said.