Concrete

Harford County sheriff's deputies are looking for the people who threw a large piece of concrete from the Vale Road Bridge and struck a car traveling on the U.S. 1 bypass in the Bel Air area, authorities said. The concrete damaged a 2004 Mazda 6 driver-side door and mirror at 12:45 a.m. yesterday, said Harford County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. David Betz. The driver, who pulled off to the side of the road after the impact, and a passenger were not injured, Betz said. The perpetrators had to heave the rock over the fence of the bridge, Betz said.

William Nathaniel Tate, a retired concrete worker and Korean War combat veteran, died of heart disease Feb. 16 at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The former Park Heights resident was 83. Born in Baltimore and raised on Division Street, he attended Booker T. Washington Junior High School. As a young man, he played sandlot football and boxed at gyms in the Pennsylvania Avenue neighborhood. He served in the Army from 1951 to 1953, and was assigned to Korea and fought in an infantry unit.

An Annapolis-area naturalist wants to recycle concrete from the demolition of the old Severn River Bridge into the foundation for what could be the first oyster restoration project since the signing of an oyster recovery plan for the Chesapeake Bay in December.William Moulden wants to pair the Sherwood Forest community's summer naturalist program for children, which he directs, with the University of Maryland's Horn Point Environmental Laboratories, which grows infant oysters as part of its research, to restore two long-gone oyster bars in the Severn River.

Jill Sorensen's basement flooded after a winter storm knocked out her power, then again in 2011 during Hurricane Irene. What stopped another encore performance during last year's derecho? She'd installed a sump pump that uses her home's water pressure to kick in when the power conks out. Knock on wood, she hasn't had a flood since. That purchase — about $800 — is one of several moves she's made to prepare her home for bad weather. "We've taken the inevitability of storms more seriously," said Sorensen, who lives in North Baltimore.

Even if your unfinished basement is a dirt-floored dungeon, you've probably considered turning it into usable living space. That is, after all, what the IRS considers it, when instructing you about how to figure the square-footage of your house for tax purposes.But unless it was built to be finished later, you may run into problems making the basement comfortable enough that anyone wants to spend time there.A reader from Sykesville e-mailed us a question about turning his basement into living space.

A company's proposal to recycle concrete and asphalt from contractors has alarmed Crofton's town manager, who says increased truck traffic may overload an already unsafe intersection.But after a meetingyesterday with the vice president of E. L Gardner Inc., Town ManagerJordan Harding said many of his early fears about the operation havebeen eased."This is not going to be a statewide operation," he said. "The people who buy concrete from him will be bringing in the rubble. But there still will be people bringing in dump trucks that will overload that intersection, and that is a concern for Crofton."

Herbert D. Jones, a superintendent for a Montgomery County concrete company, was killed Tuesday in an automobile accident in Gaithersburg. He was 54 and lived in Damascus. Mr. Jones was born in Oak Hill, W.Va., and raised in Rockville. He was a 1968 graduate of Rockville High School. He attended the former Montgomery Junior College, now known as Montgomery College, and worked for 32 years for Concrete General Inc. in Gaithersburg, where he was superintendent. Mr. Jones was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and had recently celebrated 21 years of sobriety.

A Jessup-based concrete company is asking the Howard County Council to issue a $4 million industrial revenue bond to expand its plant.Concrete Pipe & Products plans to build a 44,000-square-foot addition for building precast manholes and related products, said Bob Doory, the county's bond counsel. With the expansion, the company would increase its work force from 70 to 91.Howard County would not be liable for the debt from the bond, Mr. Doory said. But by issuing the bond, the county would give the company a better rate.

THE NEW NATURE sanctuary at Northwest Middle School looks as if it was created by an elite landscape design firm.It wasn't. The lush courtyard, complete with waterfall and ponds, was conceived, planned and constructed solely by Northwest students. They put the finishing touches on it in a final flourish of the school year.Anyone who has visited Northwest Middle might remember the concrete slab of a courtyard. A few weeds sprouted through pavement cracks, and a couple of shrubs grew in the corners.

MIAMI, Fla. -- The one-story structure with its rooftop row of antennae and satellite dishes may not look that imposing, but don't be fooled by the new National Hurricane Center, probably the safest shelter in South Florida.Dedicated this week to coincide with yesterday's beginning of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season, the $5 million structure contains 3,000 cubic yards of concrete, enough to build 1 mile of interstate highway.It was designed to withstand 130-mph winds and -- a government brochure says -- a direct hit by a "250-pound projectile at 60 mph."

SKW Constructors plans to hire up to 100 people to construct concrete tubes and fans at the Sparrows Point Shipyard and Industrial park in Dundalk, according to Baltimore County economic development officials. Subcontractors are expected to hire additional people to work on the project, including carpenters, mechanics, surveyors and truck drivers, the county said. "This project is a huge boost in our efforts to bring new businesses and new jobs back to Sparrows Point," Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a statement.

A water rescue of four people from a boat offshore from Hawkins Point in Baltimore late Sunday night resulted in three people being taken to area hospitals, two of them in critical condition, the United States Coast Guard said Monday. The rescue occurred near the south end of the Key Bridge after a local fisherman called the Coast Guard about 9:45 p.m. to report a 40-foot recreational boat had crashed into concrete pilings in the water, said Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Henise.

Traffic on Interstate 95 in Baltimore was snarled for more than two hours Thursday morning after a truck spilled wet concrete across three northbound lanes and the Russell Street exit ramp, police said. Sgt. Kirk Perez, spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, said the spill near exit 52 occurred shortly before 10 a.m., when a mixing truck from Hamilton Trucking in Columbia began leaking. Maintenance crews from MdTA with shovels and a street sweeper scrambled to remove the wet, gray slick before it hardened, as traffic backed up about 3 miles.

A decade ago, artisan Mark Melonas was piecing together a living teaching sculpture at the Baltimore School for the Arts, doing some freelance graphic design and staging exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. And he was fooling around with concrete. A friend was looking for a small sink for a tricky spot in a Canton rehab, and Melonas asked if he could give the project a try. "I actually made it in my Bolton Hill apartment, carrying bags of cement up the steps," said Melonas.

Concrete that once blocked fish from swimming up the Patapsco River to spawn has a new life as home for aquatic creatures at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. Water cannons blasted chunks of the demolished Simkins Dam off a barge Wednesday, completing the structure's transition from a river barrier to an oyster reef the size of two football fields. On Thursday and Monday, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will seed the site at the mouth of the Chester River with 4 million baby oysters.

A Hagerstown man pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of making a false statement by falsely certifying that precast concrete his company manufactured for two high-profile State Highway Administration projects met government standards. Santos Eliazar Rivas, 32, admitted guilt on three counts as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore. According to prosecutors, Rivas was the director of quality control for Frederick Precast Concrete at a time when the company delivered precast structures for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement project and a project on Interstate 70 that were weaker than they should have been because corners were cut in the manufacturing process.

Bowie -- The siding is concrete. The walls are concrete. The floor joists are concrete. The ceilings are concrete. Even the roofing is done with concrete shingles.Virtually everything in this 2,300-square-foot home model home here is made of concrete. And the concrete bears very little resemblance to old "cinder block" construction that has long implied dampness, cheapness or the mass production of industrial buildings.To show the public and the building industry what can be done with today's concrete building materials, the National Concrete Masonry Association will formally open its "Lifestyle 2000" house in Bowie Thursday.

Before Baltimore County's vision of suburbia meant houses on cul-de-sacs with driveways and two-car garages, there were back alleys.But those alleys are wearing out. They're potholed, patched and muddy. And people such as Nora Hernandez and Joseph Smolinski, her Dundalk neighbor of 35 years, are waking up to a harsh reality.The county doesn't own the alley they share. To get the county to repair an alley, homeowners have to wait for years and agree collectively to pay half of the typical $100,000 cost of a complete concrete repaving job.Burdened with accumulated complaints, politicians are eager to find cheaper and easier ways to get the job done.

Sian James was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for hurling a chunk of concrete that killed an off-duty Baltimore police officer last year during a heated argument over a parking space. James, 26, was charged with murder in the death of Detective Brian Stevenson, but a jury convicted him in April of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 10-year prison term. His attorney said James — who was out on bail during the incident in a separate case charging him with the attempted rape of an ex-girlfriend — acted in self-defense, believing the officer was intoxicated and intended to shoot him and his friends.

The sight of a forklift lowering a 9,300-pound concrete slab ontoPratt Street attracted a crowd Monday night at the Inner Harbor. Curiosity-seekers joined organizers running the first Baltimore Grand Prix as the second phase officially began in constructing the downtown race course that will be used for the Labor Day weekend event. Martyn Thake, the Baltimore Grand Prix 's director of operations, said that the first phase, resurfacing and repairing many of the city streets that will be part of the two-mile course, has been completed.