Construction project set to begin on Route 50 bridge in Vienna
VIENNA, Md – The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration will begin maintenance on the US 50 (Ocean Gateway) bridge over the Nanticoke River in Vienna, Dorchester County this week.
Crews will spend this week installing barrier walls on the east and westbound shoulders of the bridge. Further maintenance, which includes bridge rehabilitation and scupper repair, will continue on Monday, March 18. Crews will work weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on first the eastbound lanes and then the westbound lanes.
The repairs are helping to maintain the drainage of the bridge, which could start to flood if left unaddressed according to SHA.
Without the repairs, “There’s a lot more water that’s on the road that shouldn’t be, and so like any other road, it would be flooding, you’d have hydroplaning issues potentially, and now that we’re getting out of winter, frozen’s not so much of an issue, but if it was, you could see those things as well,” said District Engineer Mark Crampton.
Motorists can expect shoulder closures and single-lane closures while the work is taking place. Weather permitting, the project will be complete by early summer.
In an ongoing effort to improve work zone safety, the State Highway Administration will deploy the Maryland SafeZones Automated Speed Enforcement (https://www.safezones.maryland.gov.) system in the work zone on US 50. Starting March 18, the Maryland State Police will authorize citations for those driving above the posted speed limit of 55 MPH in the work zone.
