Rob Gonzalez seldom gets caught in the gridlock that snarls Route 30 in Hampstead each weekday morning - neither would you if you got to work at 3:30 a.m.
But rush hour is another matter.
"It can take 20 minutes to go three miles; you literally have to plan for that," said Gonzalez, owner of Snickerdoodles, a bakery-cafe on Route 30. During rush hour, he and other local residents all but avoid the road frequented by ex-Marylanders who now live as far as 15 miles to the north in Hanover, Pa., but still work and do business here.
In the morning, traffic begins to swell at about 4:30. In the evening, it pays to get out there before 4 p.m., unless you want to endure a logjam that stretches up to five miles, persists for hours, and moves slower than a Segway.
But relief is on its way. The $82 million Hampstead Bypass, a road first conceived more than 40 years ago, is to open in the spring.
The State Highway Administration began constructing the snaking, 4.5-mile road west of Route 30 two years ago. With a 55 mph speed limit, three roundabouts to control flow and no traffic signals, the bypass is expected to absorb about two-thirds of the rush-hour traffic along the Hampstead portion of Route 30.
Some Carroll County residents say they thought the bypass would never be built. And despite news that the bypass will open six months behind schedule, enthusiasm about the road abounds.
"People are very, very happy to see the bypass coming," said county Commissioner Julia W. Gouge. A former Hampstead mayor, she says that talk of a bypass dates to the 1940s. "The traffic has put a hurting on businesses in town, because sometimes you have to wait five to 10 minutes for traffic to clear to get across the street."
For decades, politicians in the Republican-dominated county pressed state officials to build the road. But it was not until 2003, when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. became Maryland's first Republican governor since 1969, that the effort gained traction.
"That's an area of the state that has felt neglected for many years, so when we won, it made sense that they thought they might get a break," Ehrlich said. "In my visits through towns there, I saw that you didn't have to be a traffic engineer to see [the problems]."
The road is also expected to restore some small-town charm to an area that has drawn a steady stream of developers and newcomers since the 1980s because of its, well, small-town charm. Hampstead officials plan to revitalize the portion of Route 30 called Main Street that runs through the center of town with sidewalks, a newly paved street, benches and other amenities.
