Roadways

NORTHEAST -- The plant, which carries the strong, sweet stench of paint, is a frenzy of activity -- pneumatic nail pounding, power stapling and painting. Everyone seems in a rush to build the big wooden boxes, modules that will be trucked to home sites and assembled there.This is not mobile-home building. No, these are virtually the "Home Sweet Home" houses built stick-by-stick in well-heeled suburbs across America, insists Regional Building Systems, the Columbia-based company that runs the Northeast factory and another in Fredericksburg, Va.These days, the price range of a modular house to the consumer runs from $80,000 to more than $200,000.

The Perryville town commissioners do their town a service by standing firm on the issue of whether the town will end up being financially responsible for a road that becomes a major truck access route for the Perry Point VA Medical Center. The federal veterans installation has been in place at Perry Point for decades, and truck access has long been a problem. As the years go by, trucks get bigger, but the space under the railroad bridges in Perryville doesn't grow. It's trucks that bring in the substantial loads of supplies needed at Perry Point, and for a number of years getting trucks under bridges and onto the facility has been a growing problem.

With anniversary observances of two wars expected to bring an influx of tourists, Maryland has received a $5.6 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to improve and market its scenic roads. The infusion of money for the Maryland's Byways program will help the state prepare for the sesquicentennial of the Civil War starting in 2011 and the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Important engagements of both wars were fought on Maryland soil, including the defense of Baltimore in 1814 and the Antietam campaign of 1862.

As more people occupy the same amount of land, things change. A generation or two ago, it was perfectly OK in Harford County to burn garbage and maintain a residential dumping pit on a rural property. It isn't all that long ago that the sewage system and stormwater system in Havre de Grace were one in the same, both emptying into the Susquehanna River largely untreated. Indeed, the city continues to deal with issues of separating the storm drains from sewerage lines under the roadways.

Three collisions on area roadways forced lane closures toward the end of Monday morning's commute, according to the state Department of Transportation. Westbound traffic on MD 32 in Howard County was closed due to a collision at West Linden Church Road at 8:19 a.m. In Baltimore City, a collision on Interstate 95 North prior to the US 1/Caton Avenue exit has closed one of two northbound shoulders at 8:49 a.m. In Baltimore County, a single-vehicle crash on the inner loop of Interstate 695 past the North Point Boulevard exit has closed one of two inner loop shoulders at 8:55 a.m. The Maryland Transit Administration reported that morning-long delays on the light rail continued at 9:05 a.m. Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Motorists who use Route 40 to drive into Baltimore are being urged to find an alternative route tomorrow morning because the funeral for Baltimore police Officer Jamie A. Roussey will result in several road closures. From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Baltimore National Pike will be shut down from St. Agnes Lane to Coleridge Road in Catonsville. That portion of the road -- east of Westview Shopping Center -- will be used as a staging area for mourners attending a Mass of Christian burial at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church.

BOSTON -- Memo to the driver in the bright blue 4Runner who cut me off at the New Hampshire pass, blocked my view of the exit sign and didn't deign to look down from his perch in the high cabin of his SUV: "Buddy, there's a range war on Interstate 95 and you're mobilizing the troops."Trust me. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a brief, personal screed against the beefed-up "archenemy of the commuter." Since then, the sheer volume of the response -- in both quantity and noise level -- convinced me that the SUVs are in the middle of a head-on cultural car clash.

Four incidents, including a four-vehicle collision in Anne Arundel County that has shut down three lanes, hampered Wednesday morning's commute, according to the state Department of Transportation. The crash in Anne Arundel County occurred on US 50 West at the Governor Ritchie Highway exit at 7:32 a.m., and it closed two of three westbound traffic lanes and one of two westbound traffic shoulders. In Baltimore City, a collision on Interstate 895 South at the Lombard Street exit closed one of two southbound shoulders at 8:07 a.m., DOT said.

YOU KEEP coming up with horrible places to drive in Howard County. Here are some more of your picks. Jim Maguire of Pikesville picks U.S. 29, between U.S. 40 and Route 100. This stretch - southbound in the morning, northbound in the evening - is particularly bad. Why? "There is so much traffic merging in such a short stretch of highway," Maguire says. But he thinks there could be some simple solutions to the problem. He suggests slowing down the "upstream" traffic by activating flashing lights on the speed-limit signs on U.S. 29, approaching the congested area.

When Michel Lettre looks at the numbers, he sees troubles ahead.The figures he's been looking at lately show that the number of jobs in Baltimore's suburbs has grown by more than a third over the last 10 years while the number of jobs in the city has shrunk by 11 percent.As assistant director of the Maryland Office of Planning, it's Mr. Lettre's job to ponder the implications of this trend. One of his concerns is that jobs are being created where there are not enough roads and transit systems, while they are disappearing in an area where such costly infrastructure is already in place but could be lost through neglect.