Traffic Flow

LEETOWN, W.Va. - A 14-year-old Bunker Hill, W.Va., girl was taken to Winchester (Va.) Medical Center on Friday afternoon after she was ejected from a Ford Explorer that collided with a tour bus on Old Leetown Pike in Jefferson County, police and emergency officials said. West Virginia State Police Trooper J.C. Moon said he needed to speak with a supervising officer before releasing the name of the girl, who emergency responders found in the middle of the road near a residence at 1087 Old Leetown Pike.

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.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Hundreds of orange and white traffic barrels still form a maze that motorists must negotiate each day, but the $27 million U.S. 30 widening project begun more than two years ago is entering the home stretch. "We hope to have the contract work done by the first of October," Project Manager Ray Alden said Friday. The last of the paving work was finished on Thursday, he said. Installation of sections of 2-foot wide mountable concrete medians and signs, some topsoil work and line painting remains to be done, Alden said.

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.VA. - New ideas are being floated on how to control increasing amounts of traffic on U.S. 340 in Jefferson County, particularly at the highway's intersection with W.Va. 230, where a Shepherd University professor was killed last month. The Jefferson County Commission recently decided to send a letter to the West Virginia Division of Highways, asking the state to determine if a traffic light is needed at the W.Va. 230 intersection north of Charles Town or at other places along the four-lane highway.

University Plaza costs increase The park that will accompany the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown needs another $200,000 from the City of Hagerstown, City Engineer Rodney Tissue said Tuesday. Tissue updated the City Council about the work on University Plaza during the council's work session. In a report submitted to the council, Tissue blamed rising construction costs for some of the increased cost, but also a higher quality for the park as part of the expense.

FUNKSTOWN - The historic one-lane stone bridge on East Oak Ridge Drive, built in 1833, has been buffeted by high water and debris as well as increasing traffic flow for nearly 175 years. A long-awaited rehabilitation of the bridge, slated to begin in June 2008, will result in a full closure of the span over Antietam Creek, according to bridge engineer Scott Hobbs. "When it's closed, it will be closed until the work is done," Hobbs said. Though the estimate for the closing is six to seven months, Hobbs said hopes are the job can be completed in four to five months.

Tollhouse raises too many concerns To the editor: The development of the Tollhouse Woods subdivision on the Derr's Field property just outside of Shepherdstown, W.Va., will not only greatly alter the rustic, rural character of that historic area - due to its proposed density - it also will be a major contributor to an already gathering storm of traffic congestion. With the development of the subdivisions of Town Run Commons and Deerfield Village to the south, Tollhouse Woods to the north, and Colonial Hills to the west of Morgan's Grove Park, the traffic flow through the connector road intersection will, without doubt, be increased exponentially.

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.

By LISA GRAYBEAL Staff Writer, Waynesboro WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- For years the town square has served as the heart of Waynesboro. It's a community gathering place, a logical spot for the Christmas tree and the hub for town parades and celebrations. In the early days, the square was a natural place to congregate because the town water pump stood at its center. Legend has it General Robert E. Lee stopped to water his horse there on his way to Gettysburg, and the square served as the town's trolley depot.