The expected traffic disruptions from city plans to resurface Lombard Street might not be so bad after all.
As the city reopened the main westbound artery through downtown Baltimore early Thursday after last week's water main break, officials announced revised plans for the coming work on Lombard - changes that are expected to reduce the duration and severity of the lane closings that will be necessary.
In March, city transporation officials announced a resurfacing program that would have involved closing half the capacity of Lombard Street for about a year.
But on Thursday, Frank J. Murphy, the Baltimore Transportation Department's acting deputy director for operations, said that instead of pouring concrete at seven intersections along Lombard, the city will lay blacktop on the entire 15-block stretch from President Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Murphy said the blacktopping project will take fewer months and cause less disruption than the more ambitious previous plan. He said the city scrapped plans for putting down a more durable concrete surface at the seven intersections because of uncertainty over future projects along Lombard - including possible construction of the Maryland Transit Administration's Red Line.
The emergency closing of Lombard was lifted just before 6 a.m. Thursday when the city opened four of five lanes, as well as two blocks of South Gay Street. The roads had been closed after a water main break flooded downtown streets early last week.
Crews were able to reopen Lombard and Gay after dry weather Wednesday allowed them to complete the repaving of the affected blocks.
Downtown drivers should get a respite from street closings for at least a month as the construction work shifts from the Transportation Department to the Department pf Public Works, which plans to work on the corridor's underground infrastructure - including storm drains and a 40-inch water main at Lombard and Gay streets that connects to the 20-inch main that ruptured.
Public works spokesman Kurt Kocher could give only a vague estimate of when the work would begin and how long it might take - mid-May at the earliest and probably four to six weeks. He said that estimate could change as city crews inspect the water systems and as his department coordinates work with other agencies and local businesses.
"It's all still being worked out," Kocher said.
