The express toll lanes on Interstate 95 north of Baltimore, Maryland, part of what I call my "home stretch" of that highway, have finally opened to traffic after many years of planning and construction. The lanes will be free to drivers for a week, and I wonder if I can find a way to sneak a test drive onto them this week before they start charging. But after the free trial, it will still only cost $1.75 one-way for most vehicles, much less than other current tolls around here.
The express lanes are located along about eight miles of I-95 and the north end of I-895 from the Moravia Road interchanges in east Baltimore to just north of the Maryland Route 43 exit at White Marsh. There are rumors that someday they will be extended into my home turf of Harford County, which would tie in with a proposed widening of I-95 to four lanes from Maryland Route 24 in Harford to the Delaware state line.
I first heard about the express toll lanes project around April of 2006, when I started seeing signs about it along I-95 north of White Marsh. In 2007 construction started on the project, which involved the construction of a third carriageway, and around 2011 traffic from whatever direction was moved to that carriageway. The old carriageway was then turned into the express lanes, but it took a while to do the work on them. Finally, they have been cleared to open. In the meantime, other construction projects in the region have been carried out, such as the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery and Prince Goerge's counties, and the extension of the I-95 Virginia HOV lanes into Stafford County. But this is the one project I'm glad to see done after years of simply hearing about it.
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