With an estimated 350,000 people expected to use the Chesapeake Bay Bridge this weekend, transit officials decided to postpone work that would have closed a lane and could have caused gridlock.
“The more they thought about Memorial Day weekend coming up and with the good weather, they realized a lot of people will traveling to the Eastern Shore,” Kelly McCleary, Maryland Transportation Authority spokeswoman, said about the authority?s decision to begin work at 7 a.m. May 29. “They wanted to make sure there wasn?t a serious delay this weekend.”
The closure will affect the last mile of the eastbound span from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday until June 28 so crews can shore up the inlet connecting the bridge to the shore to prevent erosion, as well as seal joints in the road.
Because that time frame is considered off-peak, the authority will not use one of the westbound lanes for eastbound traffic.
AAA Mid-Atlantic said it was pleased with the schedule change and does not anticipate major backups on the bridge during construction, said Ragina Averella, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
The number of people using theBay Bridge this year for Memorial Day weekend is expected to be 3 percent more than last year, McCleary said.
But many AAA members are concerned about the traffic on the bridge. A recent AAA survey of Maryland drivers found that half of the respondents favor another bridge or tunnel across the Bay. More than 60 percent of drivers polled from the Eastern Shore say they support another link across the Bay.
