Road Project

Carroll County planners and public works staff are considering whether to modify the Monroe Avenue extension project in South Carroll, as Eldersburg residents have voiced mounting complaints on the plans. The $3.5 million project, which will build two missing segments of Monroe Avenue to connect Routes 32 and 26, has been in the works for nearly 30 years. But the project triggered a backlash from residents living along Monroe Avenue, when the county recently designated $340,000 for construction next year.

By Christmas, state officials are hopeful that they can take the wrappings off a long-anticipated $18.2 million road project near Annapolis. Nearly three years in the making, construction to widen and realign lanes and create new ramps at the interchange of U.S. 50, Route 450 and Solomons Island Road - one of the county's most congested junctions - is "90 percent" complete, said David Buck, spokesman for the State Highway Administration. All that crews are waiting on is clear weather, so that they can open the new ramps and install permanent paving markers, Buck said.

When Yo-Yo Ma founded the Silk Road Project in 1998, he could not have anticipated Sept. 11, or the way that recent events have made his venture more meaningful, perhaps even necessary. What the famed cellist started out to do was explore the musical cultures of the ancient lands that bridged Europe and Asia - the countries along the so-called Silk Road that led to the exchange of goods and the cross-pollination of ideas, including musical ones. Today, virtually all of these countries are being affected, in one way or another, by the war on terrorism.

THE TRAIL of commuters from northern Baltimore County into Harford County's sprawl often winds along Paper Mill Road, a nearly six-mile stretch of two-lane that at times becomes so clogged with traffic it's also known as a "roller coaster ride from hell."If you've ever taken Paper Mill, you certainly will remember its sharp bends, rusty, rustic, narrow bridge and traffic jams that sometimes make the drive a white-knuckle experience."For 18 years, I've been traveling this route," explained Scott B., a commuter from Forest Hill.

One road project in Harford County has wrapped up and the road is reopened, while another will be closed for about a month beginning in two weeks. Thomas Run Road from Route 22 to Medical Hall Road has been re-opened to traffic. The road had been closed for since late May to allow for road construction work to be completed, according to the Harford County Department of Public Works. For further information regarding this road project, contact Michael Davies, Chief, Bureau of Construction Inspections with the Department of Public Works, 410-638-3217, ext. 2434, Monday through Friday during normal business hours.

The Harford County Department of Public Works, has announced that Cedar Lane from the Cedar Lane Park entrance to Cedarday Drive south of Bel Air has been reopened to traffic. The road was closed in early December for construction to be completed. For further information regarding this road project, contact the Department of Public Works, Division of Construction Inspections at 410-638-3217, Ext. 2434.

Patterson Mill Road from Wheel Road to Gillingham Drive in the Bel Air area is closed temporarily through the end of May, according to the Harford County Department of Public Works. The closure for road construction began last Wednesday and was expected to last about 15 days. Motorists who normally travel this route should make other arrangements until the road is reopened. For more information about this road project, contact the Department of Public Works at 410-638-3217, ext. 2434, Monday through Friday during normal business hours.

Another state road project aimed at smoothing the path to the Eastern Shore is under way outside Annapolis.The $7.7 million job will eliminate traffic signals at the intersection of Old Mill Bottom Road and Route 50/301 and Cape St. Claire Road and Route 50/301, replacing them with bridges, said Ernest Hodshon, assistant district engineer with the State Highway Administration. After the projects are completed in 1993, there will be no traffic signals on Route 50/301 west of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Hodshon said.

The $1.8 million project to reduce congestion on Pasadena roads by widening Fort Smallwood Road has disrupted a new development of homes, and some residents say they would not have moved there had they known about the project. Homeowners in the 29-home neighborhood, Mariners Cove, are upset because, they say, they were not told when they bought their houses in the 5-year-old development about the road project, which has torn down their tree barrier. The county said the residents had opportunities to be informed of the project, and the company that built some of the homes said the road project was on the area's site plan.

Howard County's new U.S. 1 meets the old near the Route 175 intersection, where the Jessup Plaza features a deli that offers breakfast all day, along with money orders, a shiatsu massage parlor and Jimmy G's Check Cashing. Just north of that, though, builders are raising Howard Square, a new project with townhouses, apartments and stores. Howard Square is part of the U.S. 1 envisioned by county planners, who for years have been charting a future for the old highway — maintaining its role as a job center while improving the appearance to make it inviting to development different from the hodgepodge of strip malls and fast-food restaurants so prevalent along the route.