Monday, February 01, 2010

Protractor Ready Projects

The State Highway Administration is restarting a project to look into the widening of U.S. Route 29 in Columbia. According to this story from WBAL-TV “a big part of the project is widening the road to three lanes from Middle Patuxent River to just south of Route 175.”

It still could be two or three years before any actual work begins. So far this highway project has only been funded for the design phase.

The SHA is actually in the design phase of six other major projects in the county too. These include a wetlands mitigation study at Nixons Farm on Route 32, engineering a new “full diamond interchange” at Route 32 and Linden Church Road, and replacement of the bridge deck on Patapsco River bridge on Route 40 at the Howard County / Baltimore County line. The original bridge was built in 1936, and while the SHA says it is “structurally safe,” this work is intended to add 30 to 50 years of life to the structure.

It takes a long time to get these highway projects to the “shovel ready” stage.

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