Bay Bridge

Motorists heading to the Eastern Shore faced a backup of up to nine miles yesterday because of emergency repairs as they approached the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza, said Teri Moss, spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. A pothole, 1 foot wide and 3 feet long, was discovered at 8 a.m. yesterday and forced the closure of the Bay Bridge's right eastbound lane, Moss said. By noon, road crews had placed a steel plate over the pothole, Moss said. Even though one westbound Bay Bridge lane was converted into an additional eastbound one, a nine-mile backup was reported, Moss said.

Authorities called off the search last night for a 48-year-old West Baltimore man thought to have jumped from the Bay Bridge earlier in the day.Crews from the Coast Guard, Maryland Natural Resources Police, and state and Annapolis police searched the Chesapeake Bay until nightfall but were unable to locate the man, whose name was not released.The man's car was discovered about 4 a.m. parked in the span's westbound lanes about a mile west of Kent Island with the motor running. A passing motorist noticed the car and called Maryland Transportation Authority police on a citizens' band radio.

A car traveling in the wrong lane on the Bay Bridge is being blamed for a head-on collision between two other cars that left four people seriously injured yesterday.The accident forced state officials to close the westbound span for three hours, causing traffic delays for motorists heading to and from the Eastern Shore.Anthony Brown, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, said one lane on the eastbound span was closed for painting, forcing some eastbound traffic to be diverted onto one lane of the westbound span.

In the wake of two separate head-on collisions last summer, state officials yesterday unveiled steps intended to make two-way traffic a little bit safer on the westbound span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.The three-lane bridge frequently has to accommodate one lane of eastbound traffic during peak travel times in the summer, generally Friday nights and Saturdays when tourists are heading to the beach. The older eastbound span has only two lanes.In June three people died in a four-car collision, and in August seven people were injured in a five-car pileup.

A summertime trip to the beach often includes an outlet shopping excursion, and the first stop for many travelers has historically been just across the Bay Bridge -- a halfway reprieve spot for those headed to Ocean City or Rehoboth Beach, Del., from Baltimore or Washington. But the shopping landscape on the "Upper Shore" has changed drastically in the last decade. Evolving traffic patterns and highway expansions have hurt retail on both sides of the bridge, leaving whole developments desolate.

A tractor-trailer that flipped on the Bay Bridge last week was carrying a load too light for the gusty conditions, a situation made worse when the trailer's soft canvas wall caught the wind like a sail, transportation authorities said Friday. "The vehicle shouldn't have been there," said Sgt. Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. The truck's driver, James T. Savage Jr., 53 of Owings Mills, received a $90 citation for failing to obey highway signs warning of wind restrictions on the bridge, Green said.

Thunderstorms moving across Maryland on Saturday afternoon cut power to more than 20,000 Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. customers and prompted closures on the Bay Bridge. Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, where the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings during the late afternoon, suffered the most outages. BGE spokesman Rob Gould said the southern part of the company's coverage area "clearly took the brunt of it. " Gould said high winds seemed to be the chief culprit.

Continuous rumble strips and a vividly painted buffer will be added to the Bay Bridge to protect motorists when the westbound span is running with two-way traffic. The Maryland Transportation Authority board voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of a safety committee that evaluated the conditions surrounding five fatal crashes over the last 12 years and looked at modifications — from permanent barriers to temporary markers — to protect the public. The rumble strip installation and paint job, expected to cost less than $500,000, will be carried out next spring in time for summer traffic, officials said.

Work on the Bay Bridge has been postponed - again - until 8 p.m. Friday, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Officials with the Maryland Transportation Authority will close the bridge's westbound lanes Friday night, and at intervals through Feb. 1, to work on overhead lane signals and the bridge deck, said spokeswoman Lori A. Vidil. During the lane closure, two-way traffic will use the bridge's eastbound lanes, she said.

The center lane of the westbound span of the Bay Bridge is scheduled to be closed starting tonight as part of a four-year construction project. Beginning tomorrow, the eastbound span will be closed from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. weekdays, state transportation officials said. Because some wide vehicles won't be able to travel across the westbound span with the center lane closed, the 30-minute closure will allow vehicles more than 10 feet wide to travel across the eastbound span. The closure is expected to cause delays, but authorities said they chose 9 a.m. as the closing time because traffic typically drops immediately after the morning rush hour.