Northern Parkway

The city Office of Transportation has announced street closings and temporary changes in traffic patterns to minimize congestion tomorrow near Pimlico Race Course for the Preakness Stakes. The changes, which are set to begin at 10 p.m. today and last through 8 p.m. tomorrow, include: Rogers Avenue will be one-way westbound from Woodcrest Avenue to Park Heights Avenue. Winner Avenue will be one-way northbound from Hayward Avenue to Northern Parkway. Manhattan Avenue will be one-way eastbound from Winner Avenue to Pimlico Road.

TRAFFIC ADVISORYStreet closures, parking restrictions and special traffic patterns have been announced for the 118th Preakness tomorrow. Motorists are advised to leave early and use buses, car pools and shuttle services to minimize delay.Getting to Pimlico (I-695): Motorists may get to Pimlico Race Course from the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) via Park Heights Avenue (Exit 21), Reisterstown Road (Exit 20) or Liberty Road (exit 18).Jones Falls Expressway (I-83): The access ramp from the southbound JFX to eastbound Northern Parkway will be closed Preakness Day. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., the access ramp to westbound Northern Parkway from southbound I-83 (JFX)

On the east side of the track, standing a few feet from police and traffic officers along a stretch of Winner Avenue in the Pimlico area, enterprising neighborhood residents offered their driveways, front and backyards as parking spots for the SUVs, trucks, and vans rolling in, waving handmade cardboard signs that read “Parking $20.” John Brickhouse, sporting a Bluetooth, says that he has been out selling parking spaces since 7 a.m. and...

The Baltimore Department of Transportation is advising motorists of street closures and other traffic restrictions around the Pimlico Race Course before and after tomorrow's running of the Preakness Stakes, and officials are warning anyone traveling in Northwest Baltimore to expect delays and to seek alternate routes. Officials are urging people who attend the race to park in commercial lots or use public transportation. Special traffic patterns - including making two-way streets one-way - are in effect through 8 p.m. Saturday on 14 roads around the track, including Rogers, Winner, Sulgrave, Rusk and Woodcrest avenues.

The Baltimore Police Department is warning motorists that several roads will be closed for today's funeral services for Agent Michael J. Cowdery Jr. The Mass of Christian burial at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5300 N. Charles St., will require that Charles Street be closed between Northern Parkway and Homeland Avenue from 7 a.m. to about 1 p.m. The procession to Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium will proceed from the cathedral...

Four people, including two Baltimore paramedics, were injured Saturday night when a city ambulance collided with another vehicle at Northern Parkway and Reisterstown Road. The accident occurred around 9 p.m., according to Chief Kevin Cartwright, the Baltimore Fire Department spokesman. The injuries were minor, Cartwright said. He did not identify the injured parties.

A woman killed Nov. 23 in a fiery crash on the Northern Parkway bridge above Perring Parkway was identified yesterday by city police as a 19-year-old Parkville resident. The victim, Ashley Thompson of the 2500 block of Perring Woods Road, was driving a 1995 BMW east on Northern Parkway when it crashed into a westbound 1991 Ford Tempo and burst into flames. Dental records were used to identify Thompson, who was trapped in the burning car and died at the scene, police said. The driver of the Tempo, Kenneth Fowlkes, 42, of the 1700 block of Waverly Way, was released yesterday from Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Several streets and highways will be closed today to accommodate the funeral and burial of city police Officer Brian D. Winder, who was killed last weekend. A funeral Mass will be offered at 10 a.m. at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St., followed by burial at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. Charles Street will be closed from Cold Spring Lane to Northern Parkway from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The procession is scheduled to leave the church about noon and head west on Northern Parkway, then north on the Jones Falls Expressway.

A 22-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced in federal court yesterday to serve a decade in prison for firing a gun while he robbed a bank on Northern Parkway. According to the statement of facts presented at his guilty plea on Nov. 18, 2005, Kendall C. Alexander Jr. and his father, Kendall Charles Alexander Sr., 41, of Baltimore robbed the Wachovia Bank on the 1700 block of E. Northern Parkway on Aug. 10, 2005. Kendall Alexander Sr. pleaded guilty Feb. 3 to armed bank robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced April 21. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he is expected to be sentenced to 27 years in prison.

A man killed yesterday morning while speeding on Perring Parkway near the Northern Parkway overpass has been identified as Michael Tyrone Harper, 24, of the 5400 block of Gardenwood Road in northeast Baltimore.City police said Harper was speeding north in the 6700 block of Perring Parkway near the Baltimore County line in a rented 1990 Mercury Cougar at 4:15 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle, drifted to the right side of the road and struck a utility pole.Police said the car flipped onto its roof and skidded more than 300 feet before coming to rest in the road, more than 400 feet north of the Northern Parkway overpass.