I-95 ramps to Beltway to be closed
The State Highway Administration will close temporarily the northbound and southbound Interstate 95 ramps onto the Inner Loop of the Beltway south of Baltimore as part of its project to improve the flow of traffic at one of the region's busiest and most congested interchanges.
Both ramps will be closed Sunday and Monday nights at 11 p.m. and will reopen by 5 a.m. the following day. A detour, using the eastbound Beltway to Hollins Ferry Road, will be in place.
The highway agency said its contractor is expected to complete its widening of the current singtle-lane ramps to westbound Interstate 695 by late October. Currently the left-lane ramp from northbound I-95 and the right-lane ramp from the southbound highway merge into a single lane -- causing traffic to back up into the travel lanes during peak travel hours.
The $3 million interchange improvement project will add a second lane lanes feeding into the Beltway traffic at the merger point. Meanwhile, engineers are reconfiguring westbound Beltway traffic so that it goes from three lanes into two before vehicles reach the interchange, making it easier for the I-95 traffic to merge.
The SHA said that Monday at about 7 p.m. it will permanently close one westbound Beltway lane approaching the interchange in order to give motorists time to adjust to the new traffic pattern. The newly configured ramp lanes are expected to open in late October.
Comments
Going from three to two lanes on the beltways sounds like a horrible idea. Aren't we supposed to be increasing the lanes???
COMMENT: At that particular point on the westbound Beltway, a lot of traffic drops off to get on Interstate 95. According to the SHA, the amount of through traffic is relativelly light. So it's not inconceivable this would work. But we'll have to see how it goes in practice.
Posted by: Jay | September 23, 2010 1:57 PM
Seems to me like they need to create an interchange very similar to the one where the Beltway and 95 hit each other north of the city by White Marsh.
Just by looking at the way they are doing this current mini-fix, it seems like a very short-term answer that might be a waste of money altogether.
Posted by: Mike M. | September 23, 2010 3:11 PM
This is 'band-aid' for a problem that requires major surgery, similar to what was done on the North side of the Beltway where I-95 and 695 intersect. When are we going to get some real relief down here on the South side?
Posted by: Pete | September 23, 2010 3:25 PM
So they'll turn one of the beltway's three through lanes into an exit lane onto i-95, and use the extra capacity to pick up the traffic coming off of i-95? That sounds fantastic. This is one of the worst choke points on my commute. It will make my commute measurably more pleasant.
Posted by: Thom | September 23, 2010 3:38 PM
It seems to me that it would be better to extend the I-95 ramps onto the inner loop. Right now both ramps get condensed into a single new lane. I think it would help a lot more if one of the lanes from that ramp ran all the way up to 144 (Frederick Rd) instead of merging with the other I-95 off ramp. The merge area is too short. Extending it would help. There is plenty of space in that area to do it too. Just push the median south a bit. There's easily 2 or 3 lanes worth of space in the median on the outer loop.
Posted by: BigDragon | September 23, 2010 5:39 PM
I hope that this works to relieve the congestion in that area. I come through on I-95 North every afternoon around 4:00, and even that early into rush hour the traffic from that ramp backs up onto the main I-95 lanes 2 or 3 days a week. The fact that the traffic flow of the left lane goes from the speed limit of 65MPH down to pretty much zero so quickly is a definite safety hazard, not to mention all the unsafe lane changes that result as well.
Posted by: kenjab | September 24, 2010 9:38 AM