Fresh on the heels of downtown traffic armageddon that came as the Department of Transportation started to re-time traffic lights, a portion of Light Street will be closed for parts of six days as crews remove a construction crane from the soon-to-be-completed One Light Street tower, the department announced.
Starting at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, Light Street between E. Baltimore and Redwood streets will be closed until about 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 5, as the crane used to build the 28-story mixed-use development is taken down.
The street is a direct route to Pratt Street and the Inner Harbor, as well as E. Conway Street, which leads to I-95. So, yeah.
Earlier this month, as DOT re-timed lights ahead of the rollout of a “Don’t Block the Box” initiative, commuters reported long back-ups. During a July 18 city council hearing on the matter, transportation director Michelle Pourciau said the agency had to return the lights to their “baseline” setting after the calibration backfired.
DOT is advising motorists to travel west on Fayette Street, and then south on Hopkins Place/Sharp Street to E. Conway Street. The department will send out more traffic enforcement officers to help direct the flow.
Ominously, the department advises, “Motorists with destinations outside of the downtown area are encouraged to use alternate routes that bypass the central business district.”
