Brake lights are a common sight at the interchange of I-695 and I-70.
The triple bridges were built 50 years ago and they are handling much more traffic then they were originally designed to carry.
“We know that the structure is reaching the end of its useful life,” said MDOT SHA Engineer Virginia Collier. “There is a lot of capacity issues, there is a lot of traffic jams. Obviously, we need to do something about it.”
On Thursday night they held a public information meeting about a $100 million project to mitigate the congestion issues.
“We’re going to have multiple teams of design contractors working together to come up with the best concept they think they have for this interchange,” said Collier. “SHA gets to pick the best version of the interchange concept that those teams propose.”
Then a single contract will be picked that will take the public's input and try and figure out a way to reduce congestion with minimal negative impact on the people who live in the area.
Warren Smith is a neighborhood leader near Cooks Lane.
“What’s going to happen to the traffic? The traffics got to go somewhere and that’s what they should address first. It’s going to flood my community because we’re the entrance to the city which is Westhills Rd.”
Carl Bell said his street is the last one before the interchange.
He said he’s wanted sound barriers for over 30 years.
“The other communities up and down the 695 corridor from Randalstown down to Catonsville have sound barriers. They told us they weren’t building them anymore and now they are building them on both sides. We’re in the middle with no sound barriers, right at three bridges I can look out my window and see them.”
You can fill out a survey here until the end of the year.
In the Spring of 2019 MDOT SHA will hold another public meeting to present the public’s rankings of concerns.
Construction is expected to begin in 2020.
