Repairs

Repair crews have completed four months of work to secure the 6-foot-wide water main that erupted in Dundalk last September. The break flooded several neighborhoods and undermined part of Broening Highway. Utility workers replaced two sections of the mammoth pipe at the site of the Sept. 18 break, said Kurt Kocher, spokesman for the Baltimore Department of Public Works. They also inspected three miles of the line, made more repairs at 13 locations and installed carbon fiber lining to strengthen portions of the main.

Three members of a key City Council committee say they oppose Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposal to more than double the city's bottle tax — enough to kill the bill. That has angered supporters of the bill, who accuse Councilman Carl Stokes, the chairman of the council's Taxation, Finance and Economic Development Committee, of holding back public education. The tax increase is part of the mayor's plan to fix dilapidated schools. Stokes is one of the three council members on the five-member committee who oppose it. "Councilman Stokes is standing as a roadblock toward improving the quality of our schools for our children," said Bishop Douglas Miles, chairman of the interfaith group Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development.

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.

Baltimore's Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Square is one of the city's most recognizable landmarks, a classical Doric column towering 178 feet above its elegant surroundings. But nearly 200 years after its completion in 1829, the building and its grounds are showing their age, and the city can't afford their upkeep. That's why an agreement signed last month between the Board of Estimates and the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, a private group formed to raise money and plan for architectural repairs and improvements on the site, may be the only way to preserve this iconic structure for future generations.

Here's an update on one problem for Baltimore residents and workers: Baltimore's signature timepiece should get some attention next week. The time displayed by the hands on the southern face of the Bromo Seltzer Tower has been incorrect for several years. Watchdog first reported about the problem, which then affected all the faces, in 2007. Repairs resolved the issue for all the faces except for the one facing south. Clock repair specialists were called in, but nothing helped.

The state is getting ready to begin a $43 million preservation project on the underwater foundation of the Millard E. Tydings Bridge over the Susquehanna River, including repairs to the concrete piers and bridge supports. Funded by toll revenue, the project on the I-95 bridge reflects the Maryland Transportation Authority's continuing commitment to preserving and maintaining the state's aging toll bridges, tunnels and highways. Work, anticipated to be complete by late 2013, will be performed in three stages for each pier.

The bridge over Little Falls on Hicks-Wilson Road on the Monkton-White Hall line will be closed on Jan. 30 so crews can repair damage caused by Tropical Storm Lee last September. Baltimore County crews will repair deteriorated abutments that were further damaged by Lee's floodwaters. The 60-foot single-lane bridge was built in 1988. Repairs should be finished by the end of February, county engineers said.

Power was restored to a city pumping station Saturday afternoon, after a morning outage had public works officials calling for water conservation throughout much of Baltimore County's central corridor. Repairs were completed with no disruption to service, officials said. The outage was discovered at the station in the 400 block of Hillen Road at about 6 a.m. and could have affected the water supply for as many as 150,000 customers from Towson north to Sparks. BGE crews reported that the pumping station was again operational as of 12:36 p.m. Any drop in water pressure would have started in the far northern service area before working its way toward Towson, Baltimore Public Works spokesman Kurt Kocher said.

The Baltimore and Annapolis Trail in Pasadena is likely to remain detoured for at least another 11 months. County spokesman Matthew Diehl said Friday that he expects construction on the project to be finished by late December. The project, which will replace culverts and trail pavement washed out in last winter's blizzards, is 90% of the way through the design process, Diehl stated, mentioning that permit applications have been submitted for wetland-related construction. The county is expecting to solicit bids this summer for the physical work, according to Diehl.

Drivers will be detoured around Joppa Road near the Towson roundabout starting July 6, as the county closes a section of the thoroughfare for repairs that are expected to continue through Sept. 1. "We want to get this job done as quickly as possible," said David Fidler, a spokesman for the Baltimore County Department of Public Works. He said signs would be installed in the next few days letting drivers know about the closure. arriers will be erected. The sidewalk will remain open.

On an unseasonably warm Saturday nearly four months ago, workers removed six bolts on a manhole cover in the median of the Jones Falls Expressway and lowered an engineer into a dark space about the width of a phone booth. He emerged four hours later with bad news: two half-century-old drainage pipes near 29th Street had been crushed like soda straws and erosion was chewing the underpinnings of Baltimore's busiest road. Test borings, ground-penetrating radar and a camera-toting robot concurred.

Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, underwent successful surgery on his torn Achilles tendon Tuesday afternoon, but his availability for the 2012 season remains a significant question mark. The surgery was performed by noted foot specialist Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte,N.C. "After some recovery time, [Suggs] will begin the process of rehabbing the area," Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said in a statement released by the team Tuesday night.

Editor: In Wednesday's edition of The Aegis , County Executive [David R.] Craig attempted to defend his seemingly indefensible decision to waste $40 million on an EOC [911 center] replacement. He stated the EOC, "Is outdated, in dire need of replacement, not repairs. "  He also quoted his facilities chief stating, "The current EOC facility as a whole is in a state of failure and overall conditions range from inadequate to unsafe. " Rather than providing meaningful insight, Mr. Craig's double-speak leads me to further questions. What are the specific failures and inadequacies?

Howard County fire fighters put out a one-alarm fire that was reported early Wednesday morning inside a state-owned vehicle repair shop in Dayton. According to the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, crews responded to an alarm around 3 a.m. in the 4400 block of Route 32 and found a vehicle on fire inside the repair shop, causing heavy smoke. The six-bay garage is owned and operated by the State Highway Administration. The fire was extinguished within half an hour, causing little damage to the building and no reported injuries, according to the fire department.

Ayres Chapel Road at Jackson Branch near Norrisville has been closed to traffic for about one week, effective Monday, the Harford County Department of Public Works announced. The work will include the removal and replacement of a damaged beam on the bridge. The section of the road affected is between Route 23 (Norrisville Road) and Harford Creamery Road.. Questions about the temporary road closure should be addressed to Dan Svrjcek, Harford County Department of Public Works, at 410-638-3545, ext. 1392.

Instead of asking for a higher bottle tax to pay for school repairs, maybe Baltimore MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeshould first ask Gov.Martin O'Malleywhat happened to the millions of dollars he couldn't account for when he was mayor. If she wants to sell the city's historic properties to help fund the budget, she should be asking the governor why he didn't make needed repairs while mayor. She might ask for state aid but since the General Assembly recently passed a "doomsday budget," there probably isn't any money.

The 1854 sloop of war Constellation and the World War II submarine Torsk are due back in Baltimore's Inner Harbor Monday after seven weeks in dry dock for scrubbing and repairs. The Constellation is scheduled to be towed from the Sparrow's Point Shipyard at 9 a.m., arriving at Pier 1 by 10 a.m. The Torsk will follow, arriving about 2 p.m., according to Chris Rowsom, executive director of Historic Ships in Baltimore, the vessels' caretakers. The move is about three weeks late, the result of unexpected rot discovered in Constellation's hull.

Motorists making their way downtown Monday through either a narrowed Jones Falls Expressway or crowded city streets may have felt a pang of envy as they watched walkers and cyclists easily outpacing them. Reports varied on Monday's morning commute — the first rush hour since transportation officials closed two lanes of the JFX for two months — but the consensus appeared to be: Whatever route you take, you're going to need more time. Among the observations: •A seven-mile trip down North Charles Street starting at Bellona Avenue took 90 minutes.

Warning: Congestion ahead. Starting next Friday evening, one lane in each direction of the Jones Falls Expressway near 29th Street will be shut down for up to a month while crews make emergency repairs to clogged and collapsed drainage pipes. The work, which could cost up to $1 million, will reduce traffic flow by at least a third and is expected to have a major impact on commuters, city transportation officials said. Motorists are being urged to map alternate routes or take light rail until the work is completed.