Harford Rd. bridge to close for 3 years

Replacement work starting Monday expected to cause major traffic backups

The Harford Road Bridge over Herring Run in Northeast Baltimore will close Monday for the next three years, likely causing major traffic backups, as the city spends $18.9 million to replace the centuryold bridge.

The more than 22,000 drivers a day who take the major thoroughfare across the bridge are asked to use detours on parallel roads: Belair Road to the east, and Hillen Road and Perring Parkway to the west.

“The replacement of the Harford Road Bridge will have a tremendous impact on Baltimore’s transportation network,” city Transportation Director Michelle Pourciau said in a statement.

Concrete sometimes falls from the bottom of the bridge, which has exposed structural rebar. Water gushing out of its side last year alarmed drivers and residents alike. The city had been promising to replace it for about 20 years, and officials said at a public workshop in 2008 that work would begin in the next two or three years.

Technopref Industries of Alexandria, Va., won the contract this summer to demolish the old bridge and build the new one.

The new bridge will include new traffic lights, major utility upgrades, storm water facilities, sidewalks and bike lanes, the transportation department said. The threespan pre-stressed concrete girder bridge will include the distinctive arch facades to maintain the same aesthetics as the original, built in 1911.

The Herring Run Trail underneath the bridge will remain open during construction, except for occasional necessary closures. The Herring Run/Greenway Trail will also be reconstructed.

Traffic signs have been placed near the bridge to alert drivers to the impending closure, and once construction begins, traffic officers will be placed at key Harford Road intersections to direct traffic.

Updates on the construction project will be posted at transportation.baltimorecity.gov.

“The Department of Transportation appreciates everyone’s patience as we work to improve the city’s transportation infrastructure for the citizens of Baltimore,” the department said in a statement.

City Councilman Ryan Dorsey, who represents the area and runs a Facebook page dedicated to news about the bridge, criticized the new bridge’s design as “incredibly unsafe” because the bike lane is not physically separated by barriers from the road, he said.

If it had been designed in Montgomery County, Dorsey said, a separated bike lane would be required due to traffic volumes and observed speeds.

“It’s really a failing of DOT that a safer design was not planned from the outset, even worse that safer design was called for by community from the earliest stages, but DOTinsisted on this unsafe design,” Dorsey said. “This DOT has not really inspired much confidence so far, but I’m still holding out hope that a change will be made before we get to a point where it’s really too late.”

The Department of Transportation did not respond late Tuesday to Dorsey’s criticisms.