State Roads

Anne Thelma Langenfelder, a retired state roads employee, died of complications from pneumonia Thursday at her Kingsville home. She was 100. Born Anna Thelma Stickles in Castleman's Ferry, Va., she attended a one-room school before moving to the Texas section of Cockeysville. She grew up on a farm that is now Longview Golf Course. She attended the old Towson Normal School and briefly taught physical education at an Owings Mills public school. In 1933, Mrs. Langenfelder joined the old Maryland State Roads Commission as a receptionist.

Maryland traffic deaths fell to 466 in 2013, the lowest number since the 461 recorded in 1961, Gov. Martin O'Malley's office announced Friday. The 2013 decrease - based on preliminary figures - represents the resumption of a long-term trend of fewer fatalities on state roads after deaths spiked to 511 last year - a bad year on the roads nationwide. Except for 2012, Maryland's traffic fatalities have fallen steadily from the 651 recorded in 2006, reflecting a national trend attributed in large part to improved vehicle design.

Nine people died on Maryland's roads during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, but none of the deaths occurred on highways with a 65-mph speed limit, state police said yesterday.During the holiday period that began after midnight Tuesday and concluded at midnight Sunday, three people died riding motorcycles, five were in cars and one was on a bicycle, police said.State troopers issued 5,847 speeding tickets, a 24 percent increase over last year's Fourth of July holiday.Troopers arrested 171 people for driving while intoxicated during the holiday period, an increase of 20 percent over last year.

I read with interest an article in The Aegis that 28 percent of adults in Harford County are obese. We adults in the North Harford area have limited areas where we can exercise. Walking or riding a bicycle is very dangerous on the roads. There are no shoulders on county roads where you can walk or ride your bike. The only place to exercise is on state roads where traffic is doing 50 or 60 miles an hour. Not a very good thing to do. There was a design made by the county five or six years ago to build a trail parallel to Route 165 from the Pennsylvania line to Route 642 then it was extended to North Harford Middle School when the state approved the plan.

State Police reported that 12 people died in traffic accidents on Maryland roads over the weekend.The deaths brought to 531 the number of people killled on state roads so far this year, compared with 503 at the same time last year, police said.About 12:30 a.m. yesterday, the driver of a motorcycle was injured and his rider killed when the vehicle skidded on loose gravel on a curve on Camden Avenue at Old Mill Lane in Salisbury, Wicomico County, police said. Both riders were thrown from the motorcycle.

Two people died on state roads over the weekend, bringing the number of traffic-related deaths so far this year to 368, compared with 412 at the same time last year.Both accidents were in Prince George's County.The latest fatal accident occurred about 11:45 p.m. Saturday when Ciscero Plummer, 53, of Landover, was driving south on Md. 202 near Kenmoor Road in Landover when he lost control of his 1973 Buick and struck the median strip.State Police said Plummer's car then crashed into the rear of a Metro bus that had stopped to take on passengers.

More than a year ago, Howard County's Traffic Engineering Division ordered $69,000 worth of sensors to trip traffic signals for county rescue vehicles.But now, C. Edward Walter, head of the division, says he doesn't have the staffing to install the devices.And the State Highway Administration (SHA) says the county can't use them on state roads because they differ from a state-approved system used in every other Maryland jurisdiction.The county was supposed to submit a study on the new system in hopes of winning state approval to use it, but the traffic department now says it doesn't have enough employees to pull together the report.

GOV. PARRIS N. Glendening's "smart growth" initiative calls for more than development in the right places. It encourages the right kind of development, including commercial growth that is attractively and safely integrated into downtown areas. This cannot be done without changing laws and policies that have for decades encouraged sprawling, ugly, unsafe corridors.Unfortunately, state laws governing the right of property owners to access state roads are at odds with "smart growth." While the governor puts millions into anti-sprawl programs such as neighborhood revitalization, the State Highway Administration contradicts this goal by granting property owners direct access onto state roads.

As reported Nov. 16, 1967, in The Sun: More than 10 miles of new state highways in Howard and Baltimore counties were opened to the public yesterday afternoon at a brief but cold dedication ceremony. Among the audience of about 75 persons were several dozen construction workers, contractors, Howard and Baltimore county politicians and State Roads Commission officials. Construction of six miles of Interstate Route 70N, which will connect the Baltimore Beltway and Route 29, and 4.5 miles of a dualized Route 29 from I-70N to Route 108 costs slightly more than $14,000,000, most of which was paid for by the Federal Government.

The county's top state roads project, reconstruction of Route 216 from U.S. 29 to Interstate 95, has been delayed indefinitely and may never be built, the County Council was told Monday.Not only that, but the county is going to need to come up with at least $17 million more a year for the next 17 years to help pay for improvements to 13 other state roads, Public Works director James M. Irvin told the council.As a result, Irvin said, the county will have to "bite the bullet." He and budget analysts say that in future years, the county may have to raise taxes, receive developer contributions from an adequate facilities ordinance and defer other capital projects until schools and roads are paid for.A 14-cent increase per $100 of assessed value is already proposed in the fiscal 1992 budget.

50 Years Ago Roosting habits From the 4-H Highlights: "The committee presented the 1964 program to the members and they accepted it. Each member selected the topic of the month which she would like to prepare. "Barbara Brunk gave the following demonstrations: 'Dog Care', 'Dos and Don'ts of Washing Clothes', and 'Eating and Roosting Habits of Chickens.' " "New Highways Listed In five Year Program "The State Roads commission today announced construction of 12.49 miles of new highway in Howard County as a part of a five year program to cover the period from July 1, 1964, to June 30, 1969.

Stefanie Trop decided to live in Butchers Hill, a 7-minute walk from the Johns Hopkins medical campus, because all her friends live and work in the city and she didn't want to drive to school. "It's not always the most pleasant walk; it's not very scenic and you can't pick any route you want to," she said. "But it's quick and easy. " Trop is one of a growing number of young professionals and other commuters in Maryland and around the country who are spending less time behind the wheel, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

William Jabine II, a former Evening Sun reporter and assistant city editor who later became spokesman for the old State Roads Commission and the Department of Natural Resources, died Wednesday of pneumonia at Catonsville Commons Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The longtime Annapolis resident was 90. "Bill was a meticulous newsman. He was always checking up on reported facts to make certain they were accurate before he put them in a story," said Helen Delich Bentley, a former newsroom colleague who later became a congresswoman and federal maritime administrator.

Wednesday's rush hour remained uncharacteristically incident free through 9 a.m., as the state Department of Transportation reported no unscheduled road closures. On Tuesday evening a portion of MD Route 40 at Pulaski Highway had been closed because of the CSX freight train derailment but on Wednesday morning MOT spokesman David Buck said that there were no closures on MD 40 or any state roads due to the derailment. Buck said that DOT crews had completed its CSX derailment work in the area and "all of our crews had removed our state highway closures by 8 p.m. " The Maryland Transit Administration reported minor delays on the light rail at 9 a.m.

Concerned about drunken driving on a holiday weekend notorious for the crime, Maryland State Police pulled over more than 8,900 motorists this past weekend — and nearly 100 were drunk or impaired by alcohol. Troopers from all 22 state police barracks "made their presence known" by conducting stops targeting drunken, distracted, aggressive and lead-footed drivers, as well as those without seatbelts on, state police said Monday. Of those pulled over, 96 were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, 56 were arrested on drug violations and 133 were arrested for other crimes, police said.

State highway crews have an answer to whatever winter brings our way this year: a snow-chewing, salt-spewing monster truck capable of plowing two full lanes at once. The truck is the latest weapon in the 2,400-vehicle arsenal of the State Highway Administration, the agency charged with clearing as much blacktop and concrete as the equivalent of seven round trips to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Officials showed off an array of flake-fighting equipment Monday at its annual show-and-tell at SHA's Statewide Operations Center in Hanover.

Pennsylvania is one of the most flood-prone states in the nation.Only 186 of its 2,571 communities are regarded by the U.S. Geological Survey as safe from high water.The rest -- all 2,385 of them -- are sitting ducks.Blame that on the state's geography and its early settlers. Pennsylvania is home to a trio of major river basins, the Susquehanna, Delaware and Ohio. As a result, the state has more miles of running water (45,000) than it has of state roads (43,000).These river basins drain land dominated by narrow valleys and steep hills.

Concerned about drunken driving on a holiday weekend notorious for the crime, Maryland State Police pulled over more than 8,900 motorists this past weekend — and nearly 100 were drunk or impaired by alcohol. Troopers from all 22 state police barracks "made their presence known" by conducting stops targeting drunken, distracted, aggressive and lead-footed drivers, as well as those without seatbelts on, state police said Monday. Of those pulled over, 96 were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, 56 were arrested on drug violations and 133 were arrested for other crimes, police said.

For the second consecutive year, transportation crews got their winter tune-up before Halloween, battling blinding rain and high winds as well as slick roads and blizzard conditions. At the height of the storm overnight, 132 state roads were closed and 111 signals were dark, according to the State Highway Administration. As snow piled up at more than an inch an hour in Western Maryland, a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 68 was closed as trucks with snowblower attachments and a "towplow," a double-wide snowplow, cleared the way. At the other end of the state, powerful floodwaters tore apart a 72-inch culvert under Old Ocean City Road and opened a huge sinkhole In all 1,200 SHA workers were on duty from Deep Creek Lake to Ocean City . "The challenge was the intensity and diversity of the storm," said Melinda Peters, SHA administrator.

Lawmakers and local officials in Baltimore and beyond are questioning the fairness of the budget proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley — a spending plan that contains millions of dollars less for education and road repairs than state funding formulas require. O'Malley's proposal would cut aid to Baltimore schools by $15 million and to Prince George's County schools by $21 million compared with the current fiscal year, while Montgomery County would get $33 million more. Lawmakers from the poorer jurisdictions said Tuesday that they are searching for ways to ease the disparity.