Capping a year-long celebration of the centennial anniversary of Maryland highways, a feature-length film documenting their history from mud and crushed oyster shells to interchanges and roadside assistance will make its television debut tonight.
The 90-minute film will premiere at 9 p.m. on Maryland Public Television, though hundreds of transportation government workers, engineers, and construction firm owners got a sneak preview Wednesday night.
The documentary includes rare footage of Maryland’s highways and bridges in various stages of construction, as well as interviews with the state’s transportation movers and shakers — such as Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who built a long political career over the path of Interstate 83 — over the last 50 years.
“I remember when they built 695 and I thought, ‘What good is it?’” says Les Horn, president of Baltimore’s Antique Motor Club, in the film. “Well, they built it. And you can see what good it did.”
So what’s in store for the next 100 years? Likely a far cry from crews wading in the Chesapeake Bay to install pillars to hold up the Chesapeake Bay Bridge — which was reportedly rammed by a ferry boat owner distraught over the construction.
State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen said roads will become greener, and be able to communicate with cars to alert them of conditions ahead.
“Vehicles will be able to get speed limit information and we’re seeing promise in features like automatic brakes when they get too close to the vehicle ahead,” Pedersen said.
In conjunction with the centennial celebration, business leaders including Fred Mirmiran, president of the Sparks-based engineering firm Johnson, Mirmiran and Thompson, have raised more than $1 million over the last six months to launch the Maryland Highway Safety Foundation.
The private non-profit will be asking other business owners to encourage safe on-the-job driving, such as implementing rules against text messaging while driving.
“It’s okay to have parties and write books to celebrate 100 years of our highways,” Mirmiran said. “But what better way than to try to save 100 lives?”
