(From the Getting There blog)
The State Highway Administration has released a short list of the worst of the worst backups that bedeviled drivers Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. The list does not include the Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore, one of the most severely affected roads, because it is maintained by the city Department of Transportation.
Prudent motorists will file these locations away mentally because the same characteristics that turned them into parking lots could crop up again in a future snowstorm. In particular, drivers should be wary about getting on the JFX any time it's rush hour and there's snow in the forecast. You have a windy road that is one long bridge, with no shoulders for emergency vehicles to get through in some place -- and it's uphill from President Street to Baltimore County.
Drivers should also be aware that Interstate 70 at Route 27 in Mt. Airy seems to be the place for tractor-trailers to go to crash. And the hill at Braddock Heights isn't going to get any less steep.
Here's the list:
• I-695 between Reisterstown Road and Loch Raven Boulevard and I-83 between Padonia and Ruxton roads (creating residual delays and closures along I-83 in Baltimore City (JFX)). SHA worked together with Maryland State Police to tow a total of 46 disabled passenger vehicles and seven tractor trailers. • Nine disabled vehicles were removed from I-83 between I-695 and Ruxton Road • I-95/I-495 north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge where 17 tractor trailers were disabled and removed from the travel lanes. • I-95/I-495 at the American Legion Bridge was closed as a result of a total of four jack-knifed tractor trailers between approximately 7 – 11 p.m. • Eastbound and westbound I-70 at Braddock Mountain west of Frederick, where dozens of tractor trailers were stuck and caused a major back up. Most significant impacts were along Westbound I-70, where the road was closed at US 40 to free tractor trailers by backing them down the grade of Braddock Mountain one by one. • EB I-70 near MD 27 was closed between approximately 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. and WB I-70 at MD 27 and MD 94 closed between approximately 5 pm. and 2 a.m. This incident involved dozens of disabled tractor trailers, which subsequently trapped passenger vehicles.
The list is far from complete. I understand there were also serious, hours-long backups on such roads as U.S. 40 at the Patapsco River and on U.S. 29 in Montgomery County. Where else diid people sit in traffiic for hours at a time?