Traffic on Baltimore?s Beltway could slow to a crawl tonight as crews blast through buried rock to make way for a new sewer line in Towson, transportation officials said.
Maryland?s State Highway Administration will implement a “rolling closure” on Interstate 695 between York and Dulaney Valley roads beginning about 10 p.m., agency officials said. A private contractor installing a new sewer line has until 4 a.m. to complete the work, but could finish earlier, said Charlie Gischlar, an SHA spokesman.
Officials said geologists studied the topography before issuing a blasting permit to Lane East ? a development group building the Quarters condominiums project in Towson ? but neighboring residents said they feared the explosions could damage their homes.
“Nobody really knows what to expect,” said Larry Townsend, president of the Dulaney Valley Improvement Association. “It could be a big poof and that?s the end of it. Or it could be a big bang. There are just a lot of things that are worrisome.”
Project officials said they have taken pictures of the eight homes closest to the blast site, and will compare them with photos taken afterward. The developer will repair any damage, said David Flowers, a consultant hired by Lane East to facilitate the project.
Still, Flowers said residents? concerns are practical.
“Everybody is expecting this to be a nonevent, but no one knows,” Flowers said. “The community has a right to be concerned because we don?t know what?s under the Beltway.”
Blasting is not uncommon in the area and is generally safe, said David Fidler, a spokesman for Baltimore County?s Department of Public Works. The explosions are deep underground and blast horizontally, not vertically, he said, making residents? concerns “unfounded.”
Police vehicles will slow traffic, and motorists can resume normal speeds after the site. Drivers can use Joppa or Seminary roads to avoid the work, Gischlar said.
