Future
In March 2009, construction began on the reconstruction of the bridge that carries MD 139 (Charles Street) over I-695. The bridge will be decorative, featuring ornamental street lights. As part of the MD 139 project, the interchange will be reconstructed and the traffic circle at the MD 139/I-695 ramps will be removed and replaced with a traffic signal. This project is expected to cost $50 million and be completed in 2012.
At Exit 33 (I-95/John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway), both highways cross over themselves so that all through traffic is on the left side of the road with left-hand entrance/exit ramps connecting the crossover sections. This interchange is currently being replaced by a more conventional flyover ramp interchange, as part of the I-95 expansion project under construction since 2007, eliminating the left-turn ramps and double crossovers. So far, several ramps have been completed, with the ramp from northbound I-95 to eastbound I-695 completed in September 2008, the ramp from westbound I-695 to northbound I-95 completed in October 2008, the ramp from northbound I-95 to westbound I-695 completed in November 2008 (eliminating the left-hand exit), and the ramp from eastbound I-695 to southbound I-95 was completed in May 2009. The ramps from southbound I-95 to both westbound and eastbound I-695 were completed in June 2009 and the ramp from westbound I-695 to southbound I-695 was completed in July 2009 and the ramp from eastbound I-695 to northbound I-95 opened in August 2009. In addition to rebuilding these ramps, the project will also add four ramps to service the express toll lanes being added to I-95.
There are long-term plans to add express toll lanes to I-695 to ease traffic congestion along the route. In addition, there are also plans to widen the portion of I-695 between I-83 and I-95 to the north of Baltimore. This road, which is to be widened to eight lanes, is currently in the design phase.
Read more about this topic: Interstate 695 (Maryland)
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“To pin your hopes upon the future is to consign those hopes to a hypothesis, which is to say, a nothingness. Here and now is what we must contend with.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“The future is just as much a condition of the present as is the past. “What shall be and must be is the ground of that which is.””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)