Ramp

Boating season The Department of Recreation & Parks has opened its newly renovated boat-launching ramp and fishing pier at Centennial Park. Located on the south side of the park, the ramp and pier improvements include an enlarged pier and an ADA-compliant walkway to the pier. The start of this year's boating season, which normally begins March 1, was pushed back to April 22 due to the construction project. As a result, the cost of an annual boat permit has been reduced from $35 to $30. Permit is good for the entire season, which ends Nov. 30. Information: 410-313-7271 or howardcountymd.gov/rap.

The problem: A fallen street light pole remained on the side of a highway ramp off Interstate 83 at the Baltimore Beltway. The back story : Fellow Sun reporter and Maryland Weather blogger Frank Roylance earned a Watchdog deputy star for spotting this week's featured problem. Our Watchdog spy sounded the alarm about a light pole on the side of the ramp from southbound Interstate 83 onto the outer loop of the Baltimore Beltway. It seemed the pole had come down in a traffic collision.

Ned Colburn of Havre de Grace writes: In 2002, when I turned 62 years old, I was delighted to be eligible for a Golden Age Pass from the Maryland Park Service. Specifically, this pass was obtained at The Susquehanna State Park, which is nearby and allowed me to use the boat launching ramp at no cost. Following renovation of that launch ramp in 2010, I and many others were shocked to find out (often by finding a warning on our windshields) that our Golden Age Passes were no longer useable for this ramp (and the boat launching fee doubled)

Baltimore County officials are ramping up efforts to promote local attractions, hoping to mirror Baltimore City's success in becoming a tourist destination. For the past two years, county officials have worked with local business, restaurant and hotel owners on a tourism initiative. Now, the county has released a visitors guide and launched a website and Facebook site to draw people to attractions like the state fair, the Piedmont Wine Trail and rural horse farms. County tourism is a $1.85 billion industry, employing more than 18,000 people with a $511 million payroll.

A charter bus carrying a dozen adults and children drove off an elevated ramp on Interstate 270 in Montgomery County Wednesday afternoon, killing the driver and sending 11 others to local hospitals, a Maryland State Police spokesman said. Joseph A. Clabaugh Jr., 66, of Hanover, Pa., the driver of a 2006 Freightliner 29-passenger bus was pronounced dead at the scene. Two of the injured were being treated for life-threatening injuries, according to county Fire Capt. Oscar Garcia.

The State Highway Administration will temporarily close the northbound and southbound Interstate 95 ramps onto the Inner Loop of the Beltway south of Baltimore as part of its project to improve the flow of traffic at one of the region's busiest and most congested interchanges. Both ramps will be closed Sunday and Monday at 11 p.m. and will reopen by 5 a.m. the following day. A detour, using the eastbound Beltway to Hollins Ferry Road, will be in place. The highway agency said its contractor is expected to complete its widening of the current single-lane ramps to westbound Interstate 695 by late October.

At 12:21 p.m. yesterday, there came a scraping sound as a 130-foot-high crane standing on the floor of the Herring Run valley in Northeast Baltimore began tugging upward on a more than 7-ton piece of concrete and steel rebar that had supported the Argonne Drive bridge since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Eight minutes later, after being slowly plucked from the bridge pier and eased to the ground, the massive chunk of 1950s infrastructure was resting on the valley floor. "It's always delicate," said Rick Slamon, superintendent for contractor American Infrastructure.

The ramp from the northbound Baltimore-Washington Parkway to southbound I-695 in Anne Arundel County will be closed for a few nights this week as crews repair a sound wall. The State Highway Administration announced that the closures probably won't last more than three nights starting on Sunday at 10 p.m. Workers on the job between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. will be repairing damaged panels on the sound wall and putting in new traffic barriers in front of the wall. Weather permitting, the job is expected to be completed by the end of the week.

Flooding from Sunday night's storm has closed several lanes on Interstate 83, stalling the southbound morning commute at Northern Parkway to the downtown exits. Only one lane remains open after standing water from heavy rains forced the closures about 9 p.m. The ramp from I-83 southbound onto West Northern Parkway remains closed. Transportation officials say no other Baltimore roadways are closed due to flooding at this time. But utility work has also closed down lanes on Lombard Street near Light Street, transportation officials said.