Bay Bridge

Bay Bridge traffic was snarled for hours yesterday after a five-vehicle crash in the span's eastbound lanes and a separate crash on U.S. 50 that injured a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officer. The officer, Richard Lechner of Pasadena, had been patrolling U.S. 50 on a motorcycle yesterday morning when he hit the rear of a car that had turned suddenly into the shoulder, said Cpl. Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority. Lechner was thrown from his motorcycle.

Westbound drivers on the Bay Bridge will be affected by lane closings during the next two weeks, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. Next week, the westbound right lane will be closed from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. The westbound left lane will be closed from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 19. The following week will bring overnight closings on the westbound span, during which traffic will run in two directions on the eastbound bridge.

Starting today, investigators plan to examine an area of the Bay Bridge where a tractor-trailer crashed through a Jersey wall and fell into the water, officials from the Maryland Transportation Authority said. The eastbound span of the bridge will be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today through Thursday. The westbound span will carry two-way traffic. Bridge officials said they plan to monitor traffic and reopen the eastbound span earlier if needed to reduce congestion and delays. State officials had previously declared the bridge safe after the fatal crash Aug. 10. But federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board spent much of the day after the accident looking into safety issues, including traffic flow and bridge design.

The Maryland Transportation Authority, which had said repairs on the Bay Bridge could extend well into the fall, is on track to complete work on the eastbound span within two weeks, an official said last night. After an Aug. 10 fatal accident in which a tractor-trailer crashed through one of the bridge's concrete barriers and into the Chesapeake Bay, state officials announced they would need to conduct inspections and repairs that would result in lane closures over 10 weeks. But the authority announced last weekend that it had completed repairs to strengthen the parapet on the right-side of the two-lane eastbound span.

Strike two. The state's second attempt to persuade companies to pay motorists' tolls across the Bay Bridge this summer has failed - and although officials admit they are down, they insist they are not out. They say they will try again. Not a single company bid by yesterday's deadline to pay the tolls on Friday nights in July, even though Maryland reduced the minimum required bid by 35 percent. Last month, no companies bid to pay the tolls on weekends in June. The Maryland Lottery, however, agreed to pay $59,119 to cover the tolls for a 12-hour period beginning at 7 p.m. June 6. After talking with companies that had expressed interest in sponsorship, state transportation officials reduced the minimum bid to $27,295 for July 4, $40,816 for July 11 and $46,741 for July 18. Tolls would have been free for motorists from 7 p.m. until midnight on those days, and the state would have provided promotional opportunities to the winning companies, including signs along the bridge.

ANNAPOLIS -- A truck hauling a food additive spilled 5 gallons of the chemical near the Bay Bridge yesterday morning, closing two lanes of traffic and spreading a citric smell over the toll plaza.Firefighters had the spill, which occurred minutes before 10 a.m., under control in a matter of hours. No traffic backup was reported on U.S. 50.Two people -- including an Anne Arundel County firefighter -- were injured, but a department spokesman said neither incident was directly related to the spill.

Tiny cracks that have formed on some of the concrete piers of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge have not affected the structural integrity of the 42-year-old span, the head of the Maryland Transportation Authority said yesterday.The cracks, detected in 1980, have appeared on 17 concrete footings beneath the surface of the bay. Experts have blamed the 1/16th-to-1/4-inch cracks on the effects of the bay's salty waters on the cement used in the concrete.Last fall, the authority awarded a $600,000 contract to McLean Contracting Co. to examine the cracks on two of the piers, then reinforce their footings with a concrete jacket several feet thick that is less susceptible to the effects of salt water.

State transportation officials hope you'll do a lot of sightseeing this Memorial Day weekend. Just not on the Bay Bridge. Travelers headed to the Eastern Shore for the first time since last summer might be surprised. For one thing, the toll has risen to $4 from $2.50. For another, the westbound span is being painted for the first time since it opened in 1973, and scaffolding is likely to be a distraction — and potential hot spot for fender-benders. "You're sightseeing. They're sightseeing.

The Maryland Transportation Authority is considering adding safety measures to block suicide jumpers at its bridges after a man leaped from the Bay Bridge Sunday night. It was the third suicide from the bridge in as many weeks, officials said.At 8:43 p.m., a toll facilities officer stopped behind a 1993 Chevrolet pickup truck on the eastbound span. The officer thought the car had broken down. As he approached, he saw a man standing on the side wall of the bridge, said spokesman Thomas E. Freeburger.

Traffic on the Bay and Key bridges will be temporarily stopped Wednesday afternoon as tugboats push a cargo ship carrying four massive cranes beneath the spans on the way to the port of Baltimore, the Maryland Transportation Authority said Monday. Coast Guard and state transportation officials were concerned that motorists would become distracted by the sight of the 14-story-tall cranes approaching the bridges and stop to gawk or cause an accident. The cranes stand 178 feet high.