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MDTA updates: Bay Bridge pier protection, traffic enforcement and Chesapeake Bay Crossing NEPA timeline
Summary
Maryland Transportation Authority officials briefed commissioners on Bay Bridge operational changes, stepped-up enforcement around red X lane violations, pier-protection design work and the schedule for the tiered NEPA Chesapeake Bay Crossing study, with draft EIS publication and hearings expected within the next year.
Bruce Gartner, executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority, told the Queen Anne's County delegation on Sept. 23 that MDTA has increased law-enforcement presence and signage where drivers violate the red X lane control system on the Bay Bridge and that the authority is evaluating signage and other operational changes to reduce contraflow and lane-violation incidents.
Gartner said MDTA has also begun design work and plans to begin construction next year on additional pier protection at the Bay Bridge and that the agency intends to publish a draft environmental impact statement and hold public hearings as part of the tier-2 NEPA Chesapeake Bay Crossing study; the tier-2 study schedule targets completion in late 2026, though public hearings were likely to be held in early 2026 rather than fall 2025 as originally planned.
The MDTA director addressed a widely circulated social-media photo of an apparently offset pier cap and said MDTA engineering inspections found no structural shift in the pier caps or girder alignment: "There has been no shift of any of the caps on those columns," Gartner said, adding that visual inspections and engineering reviews showed the girders remain aligned and the bridge is safe.
MDTA also described ongoing system-preservation work on deck panels and joints and told commissioners it has a geo-fenced alert system to notify nearby residents when major closures of three hours or longer are planned. Gartner said MDTA will brief the Bay Bridge Reconstruction Advisory Group and industry stakeholders on contracting approaches for upcoming pier-protection work.
