Key Bridge

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.

High winds and an overturned tractor trailer closed the eastbound and westbound spans of the Bay Bridge for several hours Wednesday afternoon. It reopened to passenger vehicles in both directions just after 6 p.m. The accident happened at about 2 p.m., when the westbound vehicle was struck by a gust of wind and forced against the guardrail. The passenger-side tires of both the trailer and cab were lifted from the pavement. The trailer was twisted like a piece of aluminum foil. The unidentified driver received minor injuries and was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis for treatment, officials said.

High-speed cruises could take off from the Inner Harbor as soon as Saturday, according to the head of the company that owns the vessels. Passengers will be whisked away on a 50-minute tour, heading past Fort McHenry and traveling at speeds up to 30 knots to the Key Bridge, said Steve Dutcher, vice president and general manager of Chicago-based Entertainment Cruises. Seadog Ventures Inc., a subsidiary of Entertainment Cruises, received final blessing from the city's spending board Wednesday to run the 120-passenger tours.

A delicate maritime ballet in two acts is playing out Wednesday afternoon as tugboats muscle a cargo ship carrying four supersized cranes to the port of Baltimore. The ship has cleared the Bay and Key bridges and is approaching Seagirt Marine Terminal. The bridges were closed to traffic while the ship approached and passed underneath with its giant cargo. The space between the top of the cranes and the bottom of the Bay Bridge was about 10 feet, according to Coast Guard Capt.

A West Baltimore man was sentenced to 50 years in prison by a Baltimore Circuit Court judge Friday, nearly three years after he threw his 3-year-old son, Turner Jordan Nelson, off the Key Bridge. Stephen Todd Nelson, 40, received the maximum sentence available after agreeing to plead guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse resulting in death. "I just cannot look away from the severity of this crime and the vulnerability of a 3-year-old child," Judge Charles J. Peters said.

State officials today break ground on an $89.5 million construction project that will double the northern access to the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which carries Interstate 695 traffic across the Patapsco River.The Key Bridge is the least traveled route across Baltimore's harbor. The bridge handles one-fourth the traffic of most other parts of the Beltway. Its average daily load of 25,000 vehicles compares with more than 100,000 along most of I-695.

The last two-lane segment of the Beltway is about to become history.State officials today break ground on a $89.5 million construction project that will double the northern access to the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which carries I-695 traffic across the Patapsco River.The 17-year-old Key Bridge is the least traveled route across Baltimore's harbor. The bridge handles one-fourth the traffic of most other parts of the Beltway. Its average daily load of 25,000 vehicles compares with more than 100,000 along most of I-695.

Maryland's newest attraction -- a $656,700 light show at the Key Bridge -- brightened the hazy evening sky for July Fourth boaters who took to the water yesterday, the day after transportation workers first flipped the switch.That much money for a light show may seem extravagant for a cash-poor state, but the idea for dressing up the bridge came a couple of years ago when the state was flush, Thomas E. Freburger, spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, said.Nevertheless, the idea for decorative lighting on Interstate 695's outer harbor crossing was one the authority continued to pursue in recent tight-money years.

A Maryland Transportation Authority Police sobriety checkpoint set up late Saturday near the Key Bridge toll plaza stopped 597 drivers, six of whom were arrested. The effort - staged at the only point on the Baltimore Beltway where most vehicles ordinarily have to stop - was part of what transportation authority police said will be a continuing enforcement tactic against drunken driving at toll facilities it patrols. Six drivers, one of them a juvenile, were arrested during the four-hour operation, which ended at 3 a.m., according to Cpl. Gregory Prioleau, a police spokesman.

Relatives of the man whom authorities suspect of throwing his 3-year-old son from the Key Bridge on Sunday said in a statement that the incident has had a "truly devastating impact" on the families involved. "The Johnson family has lost one child, and our family has lost two," according to the faxed statement, signed, "The family of Stephen Nelson." Natisha Johnson is the boy's mother. The Sun confirmed yesterday through a family member of the suspect that the statement came from the Nelsons.

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.

It's a much-battered part of the Baltimore Harbor scenery, bobbing in the water just above the Key Bridge on the way to the Inner Harbor. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of boats - including Tall Ships and Navy warships--will pass by the Francis Scott Key buoy this week on their way to take part in Sailabration, Maryland's Star-Spangled commemoration of the War of 1812 . The buoy sits on the spot where the lawyer and amateur poet Key watched...

State transportation officials have a word of advice for commuters and beachgoers who usually include the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel in their travel plans: Don't. Rush-hour and weekend delays of up to an hour are expected beginning June 20 as construction crews replace the concrete decking on the four-lane bridge just south of the Interstate 895 tunnel toll plaza that carries traffic over the CSX train tracks. "There will be eight weeks of continuous lane closures," said Cheryl Sparks of the Maryland Transportation Authority.

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.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, traffic was slow on the inner loop of I-695 at the Francis Scott Key Bridge, due to an accident involving two vehicles. An accident was slowing traffic on Frankfurst Avenue near Childs Street in Baltimore City. There were no major delays reported on Baltimore area transit systems.

The scene was more or less what I'd expected: lots of tents, lots of animated conversations among bohemian types who hadn't had enough sleep. But something was missing. "I didn't hear any drumming," I remarked as Robert Brune and I made the drive back to Columbia from Washington, where he'd just given me the nickel tour of the Occupy D.C. encampment on McPherson Square. "Yeah, I think some people had their fill of the drumming," he replied. After all, he explained, when you're only getting three or four hours sleep a night because you're in a tent alongside a busy city street, it's important to grab a few winks during any daylight down time.

Expanding the last 3.6 miles of the Baltimore Beltway from two lanes to four doesn't sound like a major job, but it will cost Maryland's highway toll payers $90 million.That's because the two-lane portion is on the Dundalk side of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which carries the Beltway over the Patapsco River.The new portion of roadway will have to be elevated, next to the current approach, which crosses Bear Creek just offshore from Turners Station.State highway engineers held a public hearing last week to discuss the project, and work is to begin in 1994 to eliminate what state officials say is a safety hazard and a future Beltway bottleneck.

Motorists interested in participating in the state's new electronic toll-collecting system -- soon to be in use at the Fort McHenry Tunnel, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and the Key Bridge -- can sign up for the program beginning today.The M-TAG program is scheduled to begin early next month with an estimated 70,000 drivers participating. In its first phase, M-TAG will be available to commuters in cars, minivans, pickup trucks and other two-axle vehicles.Motorists who establish payment accounts with the Maryland Transportation Authority will be able to roll through "M-TAG Members Only" lanes at tollbooths without stopping.

About nine months into a regular commuting routine, and I've become familiar with what the radio traffic reporters call the "usual slow spots. " The main one for me, as it is for many folks reading this, is on I-95 from roughly White Marsh (but sometimes from as far up as Route 152) down to the 895 split. Daily I'll take in the traffic reports from the various stations programmed into the buttons on my car radio. Invariably, if the traffic scene in the greater Baltimore area is pretty fluid, the report is basic and includes some bad news for me and my brother and sister I-95 commuters: things are pretty clear except around the "usual slow spots.

Marylanders began cleaning up from Hurricane Irene this morning but mostly the state emerged from the storm without significant damage or widespread flooding, as feared. Emergency officials cautioned that high winds are expected throughout the day as the storm hit New York City. They said Irene could still lead to more downed trees and power lines. And flooding in many areas, from Baltimore to the Eastern Shore, still remains possible with continued storm surges. One death was reported in a house collapse in Queen Anne's County, and state officials are on their way this morning to southern Maryland to assess the St. Mary's Lake Dam, where they are worried it could fail.