ANNAPOLIS — Backups that are miles long behind Chesapeake Bay Bridge construction, worsened now by fall lane closures, are drawing complaints from AAA Mid-Atlantic.
In a letter to the Maryland Transportation Authority yesterday, the motorist association requested that the state reconsider its plan for a constant lane closure during bridge renovation this fall.
Throughout the busy summer season, transportation officials kept closures to a minimum — sometimes allowing two-way traffic on a span so three lanes could travel either west or east, depending on whether beachgoers were on their way to or from the Eastern Shore.
Now drivers have one less lane to carry them over the Bay, and AAA says backups at the start of Columbus Day weekend stretched up to 15 miles on the west side of the bridge. On Monday night, as motorists returned from the Eastern Shore, traffic was backed up eight miles on the east side.
“I’m not a traffic engineer, but now that the administration has seen the impact of lane closures, we’re asking them to take a second look at it,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John White said.
He suggested that “stowing away on the Nina, the Pinta or the Santa Maria” would have been faster than driving over the Bay Bridge during the Columbus Day weekend.
But transportation authority engineers say there is no alternative to the now-continuous lane closure on the westbound span. The agency is aware of the backups, spokeswoman Katie Leahan said.
“We’re obviously on top of it,” she said. “If there’s something we could to do make traffic better for drivers, we would do it. We have to be patient.”
An advisory on the state agency’s Web site, www.mdta.state.md.us, tells drivers that until Nov. 24, one lane on the westbound span will be closed on weekdays. After 8 p.m., two lanes may closed and after 10 p.m. the entire westbound span may be closed.
The tie-ups again elicited calls by state Sen. E.J. Pipkin, who represents the upper Shore, for studies to build another bridge.
“Every time you mention that, everyone kind of looks down at the ground,” said Mr. Pipkin, a Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate. “It’s going to take billions of dollars and at least 13 years after you decide what to do, so let’s get going on it.”
Mr. Pipkin voiced criticism last year of the transportation authority’s management of bridge traffic, successfully urging the Senate Finance Committee to take the position that a new Bay Bridge should be a priority.
Now, “things are getting worse,” Mr. Pipkin said yesterday in a cell phone interview as he drove over the bridge. The past two Sunday nights found him waiting in traffic jams on the west side of the bridge. He shut his engine off during stop-and-go waits of up to an hour, he said.
The work to renovate the 30-year-old deck of the westbound span involves removing and replacing portions of the concrete deck, the metal railings in the concrete beams, deck trusses and steel-girder spans. Construction began in early 2002 and isn’t set to end until 2006.
Transportation officials said last month that more lane closures will be necessary in the spring and fall next year, after the news that more than half of the resurfacing work on the westbound span has to be redone.
Cracks began appearing in the concrete last year, after the contractor used a resurfacing method that allowed work to continue in cold weather. The cost of fixing the work will add at least $7 million to the project’s $60 million cost.
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