Anatomy of a traffic jam: How storm drain repairs locked up Annapolis – CapitalGazette.com

Rob Savidge just didn't think it would be much of a problem.

A project manager for the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works, he gave the go-ahead to make repairs on storm drain inlets on Forest Drive at Bay Ridge Avenue in Annapolis starting at 8 a.m. April 4.

The result came as a surprise for Savidge, but perhaps even more for thousands of motorists stuck in gridlock memorable even in a part of the city known for traffic jams. On a bright sunny morning they found themselves stuck for more than an hour at the confluence of Hillsmere Drive, Bay Ridge Road, Bay Ridge Avenue and Forest Drive because someone didn't realize the impact of shutting down lanes in rush hour.

"That's the most frustrating part of all of this," said Savidge, now a candidate for City Council in the ward next to the intersection. "At the time, I was following the procedures that I was aware of.

"Just, unfortunately, a lot of things came together."

Documents released to The Capital under a series of Maryland Public Information Act requests show city and county officials searched for hours on the morning of April 4 to explain what seemed like an inexplicable traffic jam.

Now, Department of Public Works spokesman Matt Diehl said, they've come up with a solution to prevent a reoccurrence. Every construction project affecting county roads and supervised by the department must now be reviewed by the Traffic Engineering Division before work begins.

It's a follow-up to a promise made by county Public Works Director Christopher Phipps, who wrote shortly after the traffic jam that the backup "was the result of a failure to coordinate ...."

"Impacting traffic on a main road during the morning or afternoon commute for anything other than an emergency should not happen," he wrote in a letter to The Capital. "However, you have my commitment that steps are now in place to appropriately coordinate any such work along this corridor and avoid situations like this in the future."

Emails obtained by The Capital show that no one seemed to know exactly what was going on that morning.

City spokeswoman Rhonda Wardlaw emailed Mayor Mike Pantelides explaining that neither Diehl nor "anyone at the higher levels" at Public Works was told about the project before work began.

That left city officials struggling to explain what was happening as they heard from angry constituents unable to get to work on time. Those complaints went to many officials, including County Executive Steve Schuh.

During an interview on the morning of April 4, Wardlaw said city officials learned of the backup through social media.

In an email to Pantelides, Wardlaw later wrote that there was confusion between Savidge and the Annapolis Police Department as it was trying to deal with traffic backing up for more than 2 miles on the Annapolis Neck Peninsula.

Wardlaw wrote that Savidge was identified as the project manager and he told police the work "was an expedited project that needed to be done in the next few days," which police officials interpreted as an "emergency" project. The department posted that information on its social media pages, which prompted Diehl to issue a correction.

A few hours after the work was called off and the traffic jam cleared, Pantelides was still pressing his staff to find out who was in charge of the ill-timed project.

"Who was the project manager responsible for the horrible traffic this morning? Was it an emergency or just routine maintenance poorly scheduled?" Pantelides wrote in a 12:30 p.m. email to his staff. "The county executive assured me it will not happen again."

Pantelides is familiar with Savidge, a former city planner who has been critical of city laws designed to protect forested land and how they are administered.

Phipps wrote to Pantelides that he planned to "(r)eiterate to staff the criticality of understanding the impact of any traffic disruption along major roads during rush hours."

Savidge said he faced no disciplinary action because of the traffic jam.

And Wardlaw said the city is confident the county has properly addressed the issue.

"We're just grateful that there was a problem and they have fixed it and justified it," she said. "I'm not concerned about 'Will this situation happen again?' I don't know if it will."

"It was one person making a decision, not the county making the decision."

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Anatomy of a traffic jam: How storm drain repairs locked up Annapolis - CapitalGazette.com