Why Is I-70 West of Frederick Crowded? (Baltimore, Hagerstown: construction, living in)

[MidValleyDad]

I remember the day when a truck load of bombs (Thats right 2000lb JDAMs) overturned on I-70 near Myersville. I-70 was closed and 40 and Alt 40 crawled in both directions. To get home from Montgomery County I took Rt 28 to Pt of Rocks then up 15 to Jefferson then back roads into Middletown.

And Alt 40 is never moving constantly at 35-40. the towns have speed limits of 30 and even with the few lights in the towns you'll be lucky to average 30. And if Semi's try to use it as an alternative the crawl over the two mountains will get slow also.

Remember I-70 hasn't been widened west of Frederick since it was built in the early 60s. Traffic has greatly increased since then. And for the last few years they have been working on the bridges (one at a time) creating one lane work zones for months at a time. I think they just finished the one just west of I-81 so maybe things will get better soon.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

I remember the day when a truck load of bombs (Thats right 2000lb JDAMs) overturned on I-70 near Myersville. I-70 was closed and 40 and Alt 40 crawled in both directions. To get home from Montgomery County I took Rt 28 to Pt of Rocks then up 15 to Jefferson then back roads into Middletown.

And Alt 40 is never moving constantly at 35-40. the towns have speed limits of 30 and even with the few lights in the towns you'll be lucky to average 30. And if Semi's try to use it as an alternative the crawl over the two mountains will get slow also.

Remember I-70 hasn't been widened west of Frederick since it was built in the early 60s. Traffic has greatly increased since then. And for the last few years they have been working on the bridges (one at a time) creating one lane work zones for months at a time. I think they just finished the one just west of I-81 so maybe things will get better soon.

Crazy, I was stuck in traffic that exact same day, if memory serves there were guys in army uniforms directing traffic. It was horrible.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Crazy, I was stuck in traffic that exact same day, if memory serves there were guys in army uniforms directing traffic. It was horrible.

Yea, it was funny. No one seemed to worry when the truck was rolling down the road at 70 MPH with the unfuzed bombs on board but let it roll down an embankment and suddenly they need a mile cleared zone around it. If they didn't go off when the accident occurred why would they go off sitting still in the grass? Put a guard around it until you can bring another truck in and open the road! The propane trucks on the road are a bigger danger to everyone!

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

I remember the day when a truck load of bombs (Thats right 2000lb JDAMs) overturned on I-70 near Myersville. I-70 was closed and 40 and Alt 40 crawled in both directions. To get home from Montgomery County I took Rt 28 to Pt of Rocks then up 15 to Jefferson then back roads into Middletown.

And Alt 40 is never moving constantly at 35-40. the towns have speed limits of 30 and even with the few lights in the towns you'll be lucky to average 30. And if Semi's try to use it as an alternative the crawl over the two mountains will get slow also.

Remember I-70 hasn't been widened west of Frederick since it was built in the early 60s. Traffic has greatly increased since then. And for the last few years they have been working on the bridges (one at a time) creating one lane work zones for months at a time. I think they just finished the one just west of I-81 so maybe things will get better soon.

I believe that is the same traffic jam I was referring to. 70 was closed from Frederick all the way to Hagerstown.

[DaveinMtAiry]

You have Int 70 and Int 270 merging into one highway going west. And the OP can't understand why that creates congestion? Really?

[andrew_s]

Its all the rage these days for yuppies to move up to Fredrick/WV/north VA(NOT nova) and even SW PA then commute. Cost of living(for now)is almost half what it is east of Fredrick and MARC trains allow for easier commuting. IMHO its becoming the second triangle in the midatlantic and with all the fed jobs I think it might surpass the NC triangle soon. But soon we might be all saying the fred/mastinsburg-DC-Baltimore triangle...

[tw71]

Let's be honest here... This isn't just about the "yuppies". I've seen a lot of this that's due to families with kids who are just trying to get by. If you've got the disposable income to pull it off, it's still more pleasant to live closer to your DC area job than to deal with all of the constraints of commuting.

The downtown commercial district in Frederick? Yeah, that's got all the signs of trying to be a hip, yuppie haven. But that's just one small portion of the area as a whole. There's really nothing yuppie about practically anything over in WV -- though it might make a lot of sense to folks who want to own a decent sized home instead of resorting to renting, and who need a few basics nearby like WalMart and a couple of grocery stores.

Originally Posted by andrew_s

Its all the rage these days for yuppies to move up to Fredrick/WV/north VA(NOT nova) and even SW PA then commute. Cost of living(for now)is almost half what it is east of Fredrick and MARC trains allow for easier commuting. IMHO its becoming the second triangle in the midatlantic and with all the fed jobs I think it might surpass the NC triangle soon. But soon we might be all saying the fred/mastinsburg-DC-Baltimore triangle...

[andrew_s]

Im just referring to the huge influx of people and gentrification of west of Fredrick. Sure its not all yuppies, and a good mess of them are people just trying to have a more comfortable life financially but still youre going to see alot of mcmansions and other yuppie stuff pop up over time if they stay. Just my take on it is all.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by tw71

Let's be honest here... This isn't just about the "yuppies". I've seen a lot of this that's due to families with kids who are just trying to get by. If you've got the disposable income to pull it off, it's still more pleasant to live closer to your DC area job than to deal with all of the constraints of commuting.

The downtown commercial district in Frederick? Yeah, that's got all the signs of trying to be a hip, yuppie haven. But that's just one small portion of the area as a whole. There's really nothing yuppie about practically anything over in WV -- though it might make a lot of sense to folks who want to own a decent sized home instead of resorting to renting, and who need a few basics nearby like WalMart and a couple of grocery stores.

So say some people. A lot of others don't mind the commute, and prefer to take their yuppy lifestyle with them to a less crowded place. It isn't just downtown Frederick either. Urbana and most of the SE part of the county is filled with Montgomery County refugees.

And yes, even in WV you have these types. Jefferson County, WV is filing up with sub-developments and commuters too. Heck my brother and sister in-law are NOVA/MoCo refugees who live in WV. They have the big "new build" house, commute over 45 minutes to work, own a boat, the whole 9 yards.

The easiest way to check these number are to look at the population explosion these counties have had over the last 20-30 years. This increase isn't due to an increase in birth rate, nor mass foreign immigration, it is people who move to these places to be in the DC/Baltimore metro area. Not all of them are yuppies, some are small town or rural folks from other parts of the country and choose a place in the metro where they have more breathing room, but ALOT of them are inner suburb yuppy types who have made a choice to move further out.

[CHIP72]

The big issue with I-70 between Frederick and Hagerstown is that it is hilly and has quite a few curves. By contrast, I-66 between Haymarket and I-81 is straighter and is only going up (westbound) or down (eastbound) hills, rather than going both up and down.