U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen is asking the National Park Service to take immediate action to fix problems with the Baltimore Washington Parkway that have slowed traffic to 40 mph.
The park service has scheduled repair work to begin in late summer, but Van Hollen calls that timeline unacceptable and asks for it to begin earlier.
“It is an unsafe situation that needs to be remedied immediately through expedited action by the National Park Service and its federal partners,” Van Hollen said in the letter.
Van Hollen said the poor road conditions are causing congestion, crashes and debris on the road.
Despite placing more than 60 tons of specialized asphalt to patch potholes on the parkway, the Park Service has said the roadway continued to deteriorate, particularly last month.
The Park Service blamed the “extensive pothole hazards” on record rain in 2018, multiple freeze-thaw cycles this winter and difficulty keeping patches on roads during snow plowing.
Baltimore Sun reporter Colin Campbell contributed to this report.