Road Project

Sykesville needs better and safer access to Route 32, but the county and a local business are stalling proposed improvements.The County Commissioners blame the Fairhaven Retirement Community for snarling the realignment of Obrecht Road, a 10-year-old project that would alleviate traffic congestion through the town.Fairhaven has refused to grant an easement to allow the county to build the road at the north end of its property."In effect, Fairhaven is holding Obrecht Road hostage," Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown said.

On a typical day, Arnold Greenspun watches over the bustle of elderly patrons and young mothers who stream into his Arnie's Bagel Cafe. The line, he says, can sometimes stretch out the door. But on a recent Wednesday the lunchtime staff nearly outnumbered the patrons, and orange cones, bulldozers and a maze of fresh concrete have taken up the space outside his storefront formerly occupied by bicycles, strollers and tables. The State Highway Administration is in the midst of a $6.2 million effort to improve York Road south of Towson.

With the design for a new intersection along Route 32 and access roads nearly complete, the town of Sykesville has yet to find all the money it needs for the $8 million project. Officials, both in the town and Carroll County, would like businesses that stand to benefit from the roadwork to contribute to it. "We are trying to do what is right and fair," said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman. "The state does not want to pay for other people's responsibilities. We are trying to come up with justifiable expenses for all the players.

Motorists already struggling with traffic on the north side of Interstate 695 can look forward to another headache starting tomorrow. Work will begin on replacement of the Providence Road bridge over the Beltway to make ready for a future widening of the loop's busy north side. The $3.5 million project will continue until September 2001, weather permitting, causing periodic night and early-morning lane closures on the Beltway. Providence Road will remain open during construction, although lanes might be shifted or single lanes closed.

Throughout last year's election campaign, Carroll residents told the candidates for county commissioner that they were tired of waiting for the state to relieve pressure on the county's increasingly clogged main roads. In response, the new board of commissioners has asked the county's delegation in Annapolis to submit a bill that would give the county government power to recoup from developers the cost of building roads connecting residential areas. Given such funding power, the commissioners say, they wouldn't have to wait as long to build roads that would relieve stress on main roads such as Route 140. "We need the authority to put in pieces of roads where they're needed," said Commissioner Dean L. Minnich.

Only the most determined pedestrians, the ones with nerves of steel who march undaunted along major highways, will have the courage to cross Dorsey Road in the future.Within the next few years, the state plans to modernize and widen the two-lane road that stretches from the Baltimore-Washington Expressway into the heart of Glen Burnie.The reconstruction proposal calls for turning Dorsey Road into a divided, four-lane highway with as many as three turn lanes at intersections.Glen Burnie residents were shocked to learn they would have to cross six lanes to get from one side of Dorsey Road to Central Avenue, a peaceful street lined with stately trees.

It is a rare pastoral scene in Ellicott City: clumps of woods separated by meadows, Holsteins grazing near a creek.Amid this isolatedsetting is what exists so far of an ambitious office park project: five one-story office buildings and a bank line up behind a stand of trees next to the park's only access road. A squat building housing a child care center is nearby.On the undeveloped far corner of the park, a large metal "ROAD CLOSED" sign marks the end of a half-mile stretch of gravel-strewn blacktop called Route 100. For now, it goes nowhere, representing years of negotiation, millions of dollars in investments, and disappointment for county developers.

Unless legislative leaders change their minds, Maryland's road-building and modernization program could be seriously delayed. By turning down a gas-tax increase and higher motor vehicle fees, lawmakers have left officials with no choice but to shut down all new projects except for repair work to preserve the system. Suburban commuters will be most severely impacted.Nowhere will this no-new-projects edict hurt more than in gridlocked Montgomery County. Yet the county's own legislators never lifted a finger to help the administration in its quest to raise motor vehicle fees.

Authorities advise motorists that this construction will affect motorists using state roadways and toll facilities this week:* I-95 North (northbound roadway) -- From the Beltway to White Marsh Boulevard, the fast lane will be closed today through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturdays from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. Speed limit will be 45 mph. Various lane closures northbound from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m.* I-95 North (southbound roadway) -- From White Marsh Boulevard to the Beltway, the fast lane will be closed today through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturdays from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. Speed limit will be 45 mph. Various lane closures southbound from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m.* I-95 South -- There will be divided traffic patterns of northbound and southbound I-95 from the city line to Metropolitan Boulevard for bridge overlays.