Roadways

Carroll County Department of Public Works has announced road construction projects for this week. For information on the projects below, contact Carroll County Bureau of Engineering at 410-386-2171. Shoulder work: John Hyde, John Shelby and Jasontown roads from Springdale Road to Route 852; Grave Run Road from Baltimore County to the state line. Storm drain work and reclaiming: Iron Gate subdivision, all streets; Streamwood subdivision, all streets. Storm drain work and paving: Shawnee View subdivision; Village of Peachwood subdivision.

Parents, principals and school officials have decided that instead of constructing a pedestrian tunnel for students at the North Harford schools complex, they will spend a $100,000 allotment from the county executive to expand parking and build a separate bus entrance at North Harford High School.The tunnel proposal has been discussed since 1993, but for the second year in a row, funding will go toward other road-safety improvements."It was a unanimous agreement," said Peggy Bowser, a parent who has pushed for the tunnel linking the schools.

Three incidents, including two disabled vehicles in roadways, forced lane closures during Wednesday morning's local commute, according to the state Department of Transportation. In Baltimore City, a disabled vehicle on Interstate 95 prior to the Keith Avenue exit has closed one northbound toll lane at 8:22 a.m. Traffic moved in the other 11 toll lanes, however, DOT said. A disabled vehicle in Baltimore County on the inner loop of Interstate 695 at the MD 129/Park Heights Avenue exit closed one of two inner loop shoulders at 8:05 a.m., DOT said.

A swastika was spray-painted in red on a road near an elementary school in Lutherville this weekend, and neighbors are hoping it will be removed before schools reopen Wednesday. "As I was approaching, I was like, 'That isn't what I think I just saw in the road.' I had to back up and look again," said Ellen Birkenthal, a resident of Tenbury Road who spotted the symbol - used by the Nazis in World War II and considered anti-Semitic - on Sunday. "I just find it very offensive. " The mark was painted on Tenbury Road near Charmuth Road, near Hampton Elementary School, Birkenthal said.

Sections of Northern Parkway and Roland Avenue will be closed today to allow work crews to set into place pedestrian bridges linking Gilman School, Bryn Mawr School and Roland Park Country School, weather permitting. Northern Parkway between North Charles Street and Roland Avenue will be closed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. while the bridge linking Bryn Mawr School and Gilman School is set into place, school officials said. Roland Avenue between Deepdene Road and Northern Parkway will be closed from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. for a similar bridge project linking Gilman School and Roland Park Country School.

Two men died as the result of accidents on state roads this week. A bicyclist was struck and killed by a car Thursday evening on Marley Neck Boulevard, Anne Arundel County police said. Robert Edward Travers, 40, was riding his bike on the north shoulder of the road when an automobile swerved and struck him. The driver of the car, Maria Luisa Osterman of Glen Burnie, pulled off the road and motioned to another motorist to stop and help. According to police reports, Travers, who had no fixed address, died at the scene.

WHEN WE hit the roads in search of pleasant summer memories, we dread finding ourselves just behind that 18-wheeler, just as truck drivers dread being surrounded by impatient car drivers. "Cars are notorious for cutting in front of trucks, placing everyone in jeopardy," said Larry Daniel, president of AITA Inc., a trade association of independent truck drivers. Trucks can weigh as much as 40 tons when loaded. "The law of physics dictates that when 40 tons are in motion, it cannot stop, turn or react quickly," he said.

Police said a wet roadway contributed to an accident near Westminster Sunday afternoon that flipped a car and sent two men to Carroll County General Hospital.According to police reports, Mitchell Allen Rhodes, 16, was attempting to stop at the intersection of Pinch Valley and Hughes Shop roads about 3:30 p.m. when the 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier he was driving slid off the right side of the road.The car then rolled up an embankment and overturned, police said. The Mitchell youth and his companion, Charles R. Welsh, 17, were taken to Carroll County General Hospital, where they were treated and released.

When the ocean turned to gold we knew we were in China. The East China Sea had been an inky indigo, as seen from the bridge of the Ocean Pearl in the moonlight. Suddenly we crossed a sharp line of demarcation, and the sea turned to a golden yellow.We had entered the outflow of the mighty Chang (formerly called the Yangtze) River, and although we were still 10 miles offshore, we were already surrounded by thousands of tons of Chinese soil -- loess from the steppes and soil from Tibet, washed out to sea in an endless process of destruction and renewal.

State police said that alcohol was involved in the death of a pedestrian who apparently veered into traffic on I-295 near Lansdowne yesterday morning.According to state police, Ronnie J. Raynor, 20, of the 3700 block of McDowell Lane, was walking south at 1:30 a.m. on the right shoulder when he began to veer into traffic.Otis Smith, 30, of Fort Meade, driving in the right-hand lane, tried unsuccessfully to avoid Mr. Raynor before striking him, in the middle lane of the roadway, police said.