Bridge

The newly rebuilt Route 32 bridge over Morgan Run has commuters complaining and the State Highway Administration (SHA) scrambling to determine what went wrong with the $2.8 million project.The concrete-finished surface dips several times as drivers cross the 450-foot span.From the SHA office in Frederick, project coordinator Eric Eckhardt said the completed repair does not offer "as smooth a ride as we like to get.""Our bridge department is re-evaluating the project," Mr. Eckhardt said."We don't know what caused the problem and we don't know how long it will take us to fix it. . . . I hope we don't have to close it again," he said.

Groups of sixth-graders at Linthicum Elementary School pushed and pulled toothpicks and marshmallows yesterday, trying to build a bridge that would support a box of pennies and resist the urge to eat the marshmallows at the same time.They were among students throughout the county getting a glimpse of life as an engineer as part of Discover E program, started in 1990 by the National Society of Professional Engineers to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering.Engineers from Westinghouse have visited six schools in Anne Arundel County this year, showing students videos, conducting hands-on experiments and explaining their jobs.

A 100-year-old bridge on W. Cold Spring Lane damaged in a summer thunderstorm is causing traffic snarls for drivers and prompting complaints from merchants.The small, two-lane bridge, which you hardly notice when you cross, is over Stoney Run Creek, a couple of blocks west of Charles Street. Rushing water from a severe thunderstorm damaged the old bridge in August, and since then the westbound lane has been closed.Merchants along that stretch of W. Cold Spring say closing the lane has hurt business by making it more difficult for people coming from Charles Street to get to their stores and restaurants.

The planned 80-foot-high Severn River bridge would irreparably harm the river and the fragile lands surrounding it, opponents fighting tostop the span said yesterday.Continuing their 11th-hour bid to block construction of the crossing, about 100 opponents turned out fora 4 1/2-hour hearing before the state Department of Natural Resources.DNR staff members and a department hearing officer will consider the testimony before deciding whether to recommend approval of a planto replace about one-quarter acre of tidal wetlands that would be displaced by construction of the bridge.

Before the opening of a certain Interstate 95 ramp, it used to be one of Baltimore's most traveled avenues. It was a route that often was heavily bunched with breathless tourists on their way to one of the most historic sites in the area. No, it isn't any Inner Harbor thoroughfare. To get there you must go south from the harbor, not west, as Horace Greeley advised.Fort Avenue rides from west to east along the Whetstone peninsula, dividing residential South Baltimore from industrial Locust Point.

They hiked through underbrush and under vines, down hills and acrosssoggy ground. They climbed trees and pulled up plants. They bagged garbage and discussed plant life.Most of all, they wondered if theabundance of greenery they toured will survive state plans to build an 80-foot bridge over the Severn River. These plans could alter someparts of the wetlands near Jonas Green Park.That's why members of the Severn River Association decided to take their monthly stroll around the river's watershed to the clump of wetlands and trees across from the park near Pendennis Mount.

The problem: Barriers block lanes on a bridge over Interstate 95, though no construction seems to be under way. The back story: Nancy Skinner has spent about 60 years in eastern Baltimore County, and for at least 30 of those, traversed the Chesaco Avenue bridge between Overlea and Rosedale. For the past three years, traffic on the bridge has been restricted to one lane in both directions. "The traffic is not real badly impacted because there's still two lanes — one in each direction — moving," she said.

The mighty Wooden Gate Bridge stands in the fifth-grade classroom at Eldersburg Elementary as a monument to engineering and tenacity.Instead of concrete and steel, Wooden Gate Bridge is constructed of toothpicks and glue.The Hammerjack team of four boys built the bridge from stringent job specifications. The boys purchased their materials from the mythical I. Saw Lumber Co. in the classroom.Wooden Gate, about 30 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide, accommodates a 3.5-centimeter-wide toy truck with room to spare.

While conducting an investigation Monday involving juveniles and stolen property in Brierwood, state police stumbled onto a sophisticated clubhouse built on the superstructure under a bridge over Bynum Run.Construction of the clubhouse, which was wedged under the bridge and was about 8 feet above the water, was an impressive engineering feat. What was more compelling was that it was done by a couple of teen-agers.Two boys, ages 15 and 14, were discovered in the 10-by-6-foot fortress and arrested.

EASTON -- A ruling yesterday by a Circuit Court judge may have brought an end to a six-year battle over a small bridge linking the Talbot County mainland to Sol's Island, a 5-acre tract of wooded land in a tributary of the Choptank River.Judge J. Frederick Price granted motions to dismiss a lawsuit against Ernest J. and Suzanne H. Litty Jr., who built a 240-foot-long wooden bridge to the undeveloped island two years after they bought it in 1986.Since the bridge was erected, the Littys have built a house and reside full time on the island.