If you use 895 to commute to work like me, then you want to read this.

The Maryland Department of Transportation is undertaking a major construction project on I-895 (Harbor Tunnel).  Beginning Tuesday, November 27, 2018, commuters should expect a new traffic pattern for the next THREE years.  Yes, three years.  This will certainly affect the drive of tens of thousands of people that use 895 and 95.  As if working on 695 for the past 20 years wasn’t enough, Maryland has decided it wants to cause major traffic delays in and around Baltimore, too.  Here’s an excerpt below:

The Maryland Transportation Authority plans to limit that part of the expressway to one lane in each direction starting later this month for the $189 million project to replace the 60-year-old bridge.  The northbound lanes of I-895 will close from the tunnel to O’Donnell Street on Nov. 27 — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — and the two southbound lanes will be converted to two-way traffic through spring 2020. Once the northbound span has been rebuilt, it will carry two-way traffic through spring 2021 while the southbound span is replaced.  “This is going to have a significant impact on people’s travel,” Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn said. “People are going to notice.”  The state is recommending people use Interstate 95 or the I-695 beltway as an alternative to I-895 unless they need to reach one of its exits. The Holabird Avenue exit ramp from the bridge also will be replaced — and closed during the project, disrupting truck traffic to the port of Baltimore and warehouses such as Amazon’s in the area.  Unless 40 percent of the 79,000 drivers who take I-895 each day use an alternative route, Rahn said, “we’re going to see a lot of unhappy people.”

Click the link to read the whole article from the Baltimore Sun.  Since the wine hour doesn’t begin at 7AM, you’re going to want to make sure you have your coffee and a powerful morning playlist.  Oh, and don’t forget to fill your gas tank the night before.  Don’t be that parent with a quarter of a quarter tank of gas trying to make it through a 10 mile back up in a one way tunnel.  I have seen the movie Daylight too many times.