Drivers Face Tough Traffic Snarls To Make Way For Bridge

Reisterstown and Owings Mills residents have been dealing with substantial traffic pattern changes and detours since February.

The changes are part of an $8 million Baltimore County Department of Public Works project that has temporarily detoured traffic onto Academy Avenue after a section of Timber Grove Road was closed to make way for an extension of Cherry Hill Road.

Cherry Hill Road is being extended to Owings Mills Boulevard with the construction of an 800-foot bridge over Gywnns Falls and the CSX railroad, according to a release from county public works. The project was started in February and is expected to finish by summer or fall 2011.

In May, a 1,500-foot section of Timber Grove Road was closed because the Cherry Hill Road extension will provide access to Owings Mills Boulevard in lieu of Timber Grove Road. The section closed is between Kingsbury Road and Owings Mills Boulevard.

"Timber Grove [area] people were not happy that [part of] Timber Grove Road was being permanently closed so we had to explain that," said county public works spokesman David Fidler. "That issue has either died out or calmed down."

As the bridge is constructed, traffic has been detoured to Academy Avenue, where two speed humps were installed near Timber Grove Elementary because of concerns about speeding.

"We don't normally put traffic calming devices – things like speed humps or narrowing – on collector streets and there have been complaints about that," Fidler said. "The speed humps are considered temporary."