Bay Bridge

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.

As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, eastbound lanes on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge were closed, due to an accident involving two vehicles. Accidents were slowing traffic on Route 32 eastbound at Telegraph Road in Anne Arundel County, the inner loop of I-695 at Harford Road in Baltimore County, Route 140 near Gentlebrook Road in Baltimore County, I-795 southbound near I-695 in Baltimore County, Northern Parkway and Belvedere Avenue in Baltimore City, Ashland Avenue...

Both spans of the Bay Bridge were closed for nearly two hours Tuesday during afternoon rush hour after a propane truck began leaking its contents on the westbound approach on Kent Island. Eastbound traffic backed up to St. Margarent's Road and westbound traffic was stalled as far east as Kent Narrows while emergency crews dealt with the situation. At one point, Maryland Transportation Authority officials urged motorists to seek alternate routes, including Delaware roads. The MdTA closed the bridges about 3:20 p.m., when a white tanker truck began venting a plume of white smoke near the intersection of westbound U.S. 50 and Route 8 in Stevensville.

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.

The Maryland Transportation Authority reopened all lanes of the Bay Bridge around noon today, after unusual vertical movements had triggered an unscheduled review by about 30 inspectors. Maryland Transportation Authority Executive Secretary Harold Bartlett said the inspectors determined there had been no damage from the vertical movements, and he expected both spans to be open for the evening commute. The authority chief said that as far as officials could determine, the cause of the up-and-down movement appeared to be some heavy-duty tarpaulins that were installed about two weeks ago to catch paint chips and other debris from the current power-washing project on the bridge from falling into the bay below.

A tarpaulin system that caught too much wind forced an extended shutdown Tuesday of the westbound span of the Bay Bridge, officials said, turning the morning commute into an hours-long ordeal for thousands of Marylanders. Workers doing overnight maintenance on the westbound bridge felt what was described as unusual vertical movement about 3 a.m., according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. Authority Executive Secretary Harold Bartlett said the MdTA decided to keep the three-lane westbound bridge closed and to wait for daylight for a visual inspection.

A man jumped from the highest spot on the Bay Bridge early Monday afternoon and was pulled — alive — from the water by Natural Resources Police. The unidentified man was flown by State Police helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. There is no word on his condition. The incident happened shortly after 12:30 p.m. on the two-lane eastbound span. A witness said a man dressed in shorts, sneakers and a red T-shirt who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s was standing by a silver hatchback car in the left lane that was closed for construction.

The Maryland Transportation Authority is upgrading its early warning weather system for the Bay Bridge — allowing it to close the span more quickly when strong gusts hit, instead of waiting for sustained winds. The agency has purchased advanced weather - monitoring instruments and is revising its policy about when to close the Bay Bridge in high winds to guard against accidents like the one on June 29 that nearly cost a truck driver his life. Officials said they were caught flat-footed by the violent storm — a derecho — that tore through the region, leaving millions without power and subjecting motorists on the bridge to one of the most frightening experiences of their lives.

A half-mile or so from the highest point on the Bay Bridge, heading east on U.S. 50 toward Kent Island, you can see a large green house at the water's edge, its 60-foot pier jutting into the bay. The waterfront home of Ells and Jeanne Snyder is on a street where no two houses look alike, but all are equally attractive. The couple's journey to this peaceful spot began with a search for the perfect home — but not on the Eastern Shore side of the...

Record-breaking heat fueled severe storms that swept across parts of Maryland on Wednesday. Though not an official record-keeping location, Maryland Science Center reached 107 degrees, tying the hottest mark ever recorded in Baltimore, on July 10, 1936. At that time, weather records were kept at the U.S. Custom House downtown, but the point of record for Baltimore moved in 1950 to what is now Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. BWI, meanwhile, reached a high of 104, breaking the previous official record for July 18, set in 1887 at 102. That had been Baltimore's longest-standing high-temperature record for July.