UPDATE (June 10, 2014) – Salem Street will remain open during this phase of work. An alternative staging area for equipment has been identified to avoid the closure and detour of Salem Street.

(June 5, 2014) – Cleaning and painting work resumes next week below the I-68 Crosstown Bridge in downtown Cumberland as part of a two-year-long bridge rehabilitation project by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). Starting Monday, crews will work on the section of the bridge between Centre Street and the CSX Railroad.

Blast-cleaning and painting the steel beams is done from contained platforms suspended below the bridge. Crews have been working in sections to clean, paint and repair the more than half-mile-long bridge that carries the highway over Wills Creek, CSX Railroad, and downtown streets and businesses.

The $14 million bridge rehabilitation project also includes repairs to the driving surface and joints of the I-68 Crosstown Bridge, concrete repairs and fiber-wrapping on the pier columns, and rehabilitation of a nearby bridge that carries MD 51 (Industrial Boulevard) over CSX Railroad. Weather permitting, the full project will be complete early 2015.

SHA’s contractor for the project is Titan Industrial Service, Inc. of Baltimore. More information about the project is available at http://www.bitly.com/crosstownbridge.

While SHA and its partners work hard to maintain safe traffic mobility in work zones, each driver needs to actively modify his or her driving style to help prevent crashes. Stay alert – look for reduced speed limits, narrow driving lanes and highway workers. Slow down and don't follow too closely. Safer Driving. Safer Work Zones. For everyone!

 

 

 

 

Above: A view of the freshly cleaned and painted underside of I-68 Crosstown Bridge in the section near Johnson Street, completed in 2013. Next week, crews will resume blast cleaning and painting, beginning with the section of the bridge between Centre Street and CSX Railroad. (Photo taken April 9, 2014).

 

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