MDOT SHA expects thousands of visiting drivers on Eastern Shore this Memorial Day Weekend
MARYLAND – Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) crews are preparing for an influx of visiting drivers ahead of Memorial Day Weekend.
“Hundreds of thousands of people travel down to the shore,” said SHA spokesperson Charlie Gischlar. “Particularly, Ocean City becomes the second-largest city in Maryland on summer weekends. So, there’s a lot of people.”
Keeping Up with Maintenance
The focus right now, is on keeping up with maintenance and making repairs. Gischlar says that work is particularly important, considering many of the Eastern Shore’s roadways are not much higher than sea level.
“I’ve personally seen, during a regular thunder storm, there’s drainage issues,” said Gischlar. “We have to really stay on top of that. The drainage, I think, is going to be the biggest thing that we have to prepare for. We never stop doing it, we never stop going in, because it’s constant silt, leaf litter, and twigs, and regular litter that accumulates in there.”
Gischlar says crews are staying vigilant with drainage facilities, as pooling can cause dangerous hydroplaning.
“Drainage is very important in road building. you’ve got to get the moisture off the road, and into the acceptable facilities – drainage ditches and ponds – let the debris settle, and then get the clean water on the output,” said Gischlar.
As crews remove that debris using tools like vacuum trucks, they’re also replacing faded road signs.
“The salinity in the air, and also the intense sunshine can really have an effect on some of those road signs. They tend to fade out a little more than they would in the western part of the state,” said Gischlar. “We do have a sign shop in Hanover where we manufacture a lot of the basic signs; stop signs, one way signs, directional signs. So, we have a lot of hand. If we see it start to fade out, and the reflectivity goes a little south, we then replace it immediately.”
What to Expect
Drivers can expect to see crews working across Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties.
“We’re trying to get that initial punch done before Memorial Day, that way we’re staying out of peoples’ way,” said Gischlar. “On Memorial Day weekend, we do suspend non-emergency lane closures to help accommodate the influx of traffic, and the hundreds of thousands of people who will be traveling on Maryland roads.”
And as drivers navigate around road work, Gischlar asks that they keep workers’ and pedestrians’ safety top of mind.
“There’s little protection, other than a truck following behind. It doesn’t take much. There’s no contest between a moving vehicle and a human being on the highway. We do ask you to move over, slow down,” said Gischlar. “You want to make sure you’re looking twice, you’re not distracted, you’re not impaired, and we share the road with our bicyclists. You’ve got to give them a yard, or three feet.”
Stay Up to Date
To stay up to date on accidents, construction, and see live video feed of state highways, click here. You can also report roadway hazards to SHA’s Coordinated Highway Action Response Team, or CHART.
“If you see something on a Maryland state highway – that’s the numbered roadways – we encourage you to also contact us, and report things such as litter, or any other things on the state highway system that needs to be addressed,” said Giaschlar. “It goes to the nearest maintenance shop in the area, and they will go out and inspect, and remediate, if necessary.”
