Expressway

A man suspected of drug activity was injured yesterday after leaping over a Jones Falls Expressway retaining wall near Cold Spring Lane to avoid arrest and landing in the falls some 60 feet below the highway, authorities said. The suspect - described as conscious and alert - was pulled from the water by firefighters reaching the site from Clipper Mill Road, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a city Fire Department spokesman. The unidentified man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, as was an unnamed police officer who sustained a shoulder injury in the incident, according to preliminary accounts.

Baltimore transportation officials said yesterday that there will be daily lane closures through this week on the Jones Falls Expressway to install signs. One northbound lane of the expressway from Chase Street to Howard Street will be closed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. through Friday, city transportation officials said. A southbound lane from North Avenue to Howard Street will also be closed daily from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Friday. In addition, at least one southbound lane of the expressway will be closed between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the painting of the Howard Street bridge, officials said.

Two men were arrested last night after leading city police and the crew of a police helicopter on a vehicle pursuit on and off the Jones Falls Expressway that ended when one man was arrested while hiding under the porch of a house near St. Mary's Seminary, police said. The other man was arrested when he bailed out of the car on the expressway. At one point, the suspect's 1997 Lexus was southbound in the northbound lanes of the expressway near 41st Street, but its driver turned around as he neared a police roadblock set up to prevent the car from colliding with northbound traffic.

A man believed to be undergoing psychiatric treatment was fatally injured last night when he apparently ran into the side of a minivan traveling in a southbound lane of the Jones Falls Expressway, city police said.The man, about 30, was pronounced dead at the scene north of the 28th Street exit ramp, police said. His name was withheld pending notification of relatives.Police said the man, who walked onto the expressway on the ramp, was carrying a state Department of Social Services card and papers indicating that he was receiving psychiatric treatment.

The Sun's article "After nearly 2 years, construction on JFX finally winds down" (Sept. 17) did a wonderful job detailing the benefits of connecting downtown Baltimore and the suburban areas of Baltimore County. Unfortunately, for the historic Midtown communities that abut the expressway in the heart of Baltimore, the road's benefits are fewer. The Jones Falls Expressway fills the Midtown communities with noise and pollution, and treats mainly residential St. Paul Street as an exit ramp for expressway traffic, while the parking needs of our local business corridor along Charles Street must take a back seat to the needs of the rush-hour commuters rushing up Charles Street to get to the entrance ramp at Penn Station.

Two months after its completion, Route 10 is still waiting for the commuters projected to fill its lanes.State traffic engineers are waiting for the traffic "to find its level" before conducting any formal studies, but their "eyeball" estimates are that 20,000 to 25,000 cars use the 7.2-mile-long road daily.Those numbers are well short of the 65,000 trips a day predicted before the last leg of Route 10 opened in March."Traffic is sort of like water: It eventually seeks its own level," Baltimore RegionalTraffic Planner Robert Lambdin said.

Life may have many roads but mine is the Jones Falls Expressway. It is the rut I ride in, the road that runs my life.Like any driver with kids to ferry and errands to run, I am drawn to the fastest route. In my case, the shortest distance between home and obligation is usually the Jones Falls. Rarely is there a day that I do not find myself on some stretch of that 9 1/2 -mile roadway that starts at Fayette Street in downtown Baltimore and runs north to the Beltway. Technically, the Jones Falls is a section of Interstate 83. Colloquially it is called "The JFX."

The driver of a pickup truck and three men riding in the truck's bed were critically injured when they were thrown into a ravine between the Northwest Expressway and the Metro tracks near the Baltimore Beltway in an evening rush-hour accident yesterday.The 4:30 p.m. collision of the truck and a car created a nightmare for commuters, as rescue workers blocked off the northbound lanes of the expressway -- Interstate 795 -- from the Beltway to Owings Mills Boulevard for nearly three hours. The Metro train that runs along I-795 was closed down for about two hours, and southbound I-795 was closed intermittently, said Chuck Jackson, state police spokesman.

When the City Fair was first held in 1970, its character and purpose were reflected in its theme: "Life in the city: the culture, the pleasure, the economic possibilities." Diverse neighborhoods participated, setting up booths that boasted their unique character, and the smell of ethnic food wafted over the fairgrounds. It was a time when enthusiasm for Baltimore bubbled, urbanism was in, and the possibilities seemed endless.Perhaps it is metaphorical that 20 years later the City Fair ended up under the expressway -- a culturally sterile collection of carnival rides and arcade games that could just as well be in Philadelphia as Baltimore -- and, no surprise, was deep in debt.

WASHINGTON -- Are American cities repeating the ''big project'' follies of the '50s and '60s? Are today's monster sports stadiums and other urban big-ticket items as potentially harmful to cities as those that bulldozed neighborhoods and produced sterile high-rises 30 to 40 years ago?Arthur Ziegler has a sinking feeling it's so. And when Mr. Ziegler speaks, urban America ought to listen. Since he co-founded the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation 33 years ago, he has proved conclusively that historic preservation and community building can be profitable partners.