Traffic Flow

SMITHSBURG -- A left-turn arrow is expected to be installed by the end of September at the traffic signal for the Smithsburg schools, helping to alleviate some congestion in that area, a Washington County public works official said Monday. The left-turn arrow will be installed for southbound traffic on Main Street, helping drivers turning into the middle and high school campuses, said Robert Slocum, deputy director of public works. During the summer, work was completed to improve the entrances to the schools, including installation of traffic lights.

Starting this week, motorists driving over seven Washington County bridges might have to slow down. The Maryland State Highway Administration plans to clean and paint the bridges, an $893,000 project expected to be completed in late fall 2006. The work likely will mean single-lane travel from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, according to a written statement from the State Highway Administration. The bridges being upgraded are at the Interstate 70 and Interstate 81 interchanges, two eastbound and westbound I-70 bridges over Antietam Creek and the U.S. 11 (Virginia Avenue)

Work crews from Charles Brake Co. and Newville Construction Services will begin work to replace water and sewer mains in the intersection of Jonathan Street and North Avenue on Monday, weather permitting. This work will require drilling, blasting and excavation in the middle of the intersection, which will affect traffic flow on North Avenue, according to a release from the city. During the initial part of construction in the intersection, the contractor will attempt to use flaggers to keep at least one lane of traffic flowing on North Avenue, the release says.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- The Greencastle Borough Council said its top goal for the next five years is to improve traffic flow throughout the borough. The Borough of Greencastle has been considering a bypass around town for more than a decade, but with recent construction on Baltimore Street proving it easy to create a two-mile traffic jam, the council has moved the item to the top of its list. The five-year strategic plan drafted by the council was the brainchild of Councilwoman Michele Emmett.

Brown Avenue traffic will flow one-way eastbound The Hagerstown City Council endorsed Tuesday a plan to reverse the traffic flow on a one-way section of Brown Avenue. Brown Avenue is two blocks long between Virginia Avenue and Guilford Avenue. In December 1986 the block between Virginia Avenue and Summit Avenue was made one-way westbound, toward Virginia Avenue. In October, the city received a petition from several Brown Avenue residents who wanted the street made one-way eastbound, toward Summit Avenue.

Work to improve traffic flow the intersection of Massey and Halfway boulevards near Valley Mall is under way. The $5.2 million project is expected to be completed in November, according to Robert J. Slocum, deputy director of public works for capital projects for Washington County.

Due to the replacement of the traffic signal, Lockheed Martin began working on Salem Avenue at the intersection of Burhans Boulevard on Monday. The work will continue through Friday, June 18, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Traffic flow on Salem Avenue and Burhans Boulevard will be altered throughout the week. Congestion is anticipated. Access to local residences and businesses will be maintained. Motorists are recommended to use alternate routes.

Columbia Gas to replace main line Columbia Gas of Maryland will replace the natural gas main in East Antietam Street from South Potomac Street to South Cannon Avenue beginning Monday, March 19. The work will take about one month. Crews will work in the street between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Traffic flow will be reduced to one lane during these periods.

Underpass Way at Valley Mall will be closed to all through traffic from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. from Monday though Nov. 22 to make repairs to the Halfway Boulevard bridge, according to a Washington County Engineering Department press release. The bridge was damaged when it was struck by a container truck in July . Appropriate detours will be posted and maintained. Traffic flow on Halfway Boulevard should not be affected, but it will not be possible for traffic to go under the bridge during those hours.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the Hopewell Road and Halfway Boulevard Intersection project has been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept, 28, at noon. Construction has began last summer on the project, which is designed to improve traffic flow as the Hopewell area develops into a business and industry center. The project cost more than $2.5 million, and included a new traffic signal, more than 4,000 linear feet of new road, 3,600 feet of storm drain work and nearly 2,000 feet of water lines.

A Clear Spring resident submitted a question through Mail Call recently, asking about the ongoing roadwork at the intersection of U.S. 40 and Md. 63 (Greencastle Pike) west of Hagerstown. “Observe the Maryland taxpayers' money at work, at Huyetts Crossroads,” the person wrote. “The traffic signal supports that were built and installed one year ago are being destroyed, because they were in the wrong location? Blunder, or not?” Heather Keels, spokeswoman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, wrote in an email Thursday that the traffic signals are being relocated as part of a project to add additional turn lanes and bicycle lanes along Md. 63. “The letter-writer is mistaken about these poles having been installed one year ago; the existing traffic signal poles were put in about 10 years ago when U.S. 40 was widened,” Keels wrote.

If attendance for Hagerstown Suns' games in a new downtown facility are on par with projections, city officials estimate an influx of from 1,100 to 2,000 vehicles arriving for an evening at the ballpark. That shouldn't pose a problem, City Engineer Rodney Tissue said Friday as he addressed parking and traffic issues associated with the proposed downtown multiuse sports and events center at City Hall. “We don't see the issue really being a traffic issue as much as being able to efficiently find the parking that's here,” Tissue said during a press conference called on the issue.

Congestion along the busy U.S. 340 corridor near the Potomac River is not a new issue to local residents or transportation officials from Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Searching for answers to traffic backups that can reach almost two miles long during rush hours, about 30 people attended a meeting Friday night at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Knoxville, Md., to air their complaints. Officials from the Md. State Highway Administration were joined by West Virginia and Virginia Department of Transportation representatives to talk about the issues that motorists are facing, offer some short-term solutions and seek input.

“I know there's supposed to be a law about loud music in your cars and everything, but when there's foul language in the music, and I have a child sitting in the car asking why that is - I was sitting in three lanes in Hagerstown yesterday, I'm on the right, the guy in the middle had his window down, the passenger window was up. There was a ... police officer in the left lane - very, very nasty music playing, and I'm blowing (my horn) to ask him not to play that because I have a child in the car. The police officer's windows are down, he can hear it, pays no attention.” - Hagerstown “Stadium supporters, if, as you claim, regardless of taxes, regulations and local business conditions, a minor league team by itself is such a huge business draw, why haven't they been flocking to Hagerstown all the time you've had the team?

Jefferson County planning officials first started thinking about the future of the seven-mile stretch of U.S. 340 from the Virginia line to the Charles Town city line in 2004 when it adopted its then new Comprehensive Plan. The plan called for a study of the 340 Corridor in terms of land use, economic development and traffic flow and design. On Thursday night, members of the county's planning department staff and planning commission members met with the Jefferson County Commission at a workshop before an audience of about 30 people.

To accommodate travel on Maryland highways over the Thanksgiving weekend, nonemergency work on all roads maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration will be suspended between 9 a.m. Wednesday and Monday morning, the SHA said Tuesday. “This is one of the busiest travel times of the year,” SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar said. “Ten years ago, we might only have to worry about people traveling on Wednesday. Now people make a week out of it.” In addition to suspending roadwork in certain areas, Gischlar said the SHA would add extra staff to handle accidents.

The problem: Traffic backs up on the ramp from I-81 to Maugans Avenue because drivers stop, unnecessarily, at the end of the ramp to eastbound Maugans Avenue, Karen Gelwicks of Williamsport wrote in an email. Recent widening of Maugans Avenue created a dedicated lane for traffic coming off the interstate, so no merge or stop is needed for vehicles turning right onto Maugans Avenue, Gelwicks said. However, there are no signs to tell drivers they don't need to stop, she said. “Many times I have almost been in a collision either into someone, or someone into me, because I have had to slam on the brakes at the end of the ramp,” Gelwicks wrote.

Work to improve traffic flow the intersection of Massey and Halfway boulevards near Valley Mall is under way. The $5.2 million project is expected to be completed in November, according to Robert J. Slocum, deputy director of public works for capital projects for Washington County.

Four traffic circles in the north end will soon be updated with yield signs. The Hagerstown City Council agreed Tuesday to remove stop signs from traffic circles on East Magnolia and East Irvin avenues and replace them with yield signs. The circles are at the intersections of East Magnolia Avenue and Mealey Parkway; East Irvin Avenue and Mealey Parkway; East Irvin Avenue, Valley Brook Drive and View Street; and East Irvin Avenue and East Magnolia. City Engineer Rodney Tissue said that most traffic circles are marked with yield signs, not stop signs.

SMITHSBURG -- A left-turn arrow is expected to be installed by the end of September at the traffic signal for the Smithsburg schools, helping to alleviate some congestion in that area, a Washington County public works official said Monday. The left-turn arrow will be installed for southbound traffic on Main Street, helping drivers turning into the middle and high school campuses, said Robert Slocum, deputy director of public works. During the summer, work was completed to improve the entrances to the schools, including installation of traffic lights.