Baltimore Sun

The $82 million Hampstead Bypass, a road first conceived more than 40 years ago, is to open in the spring.

The State Highway Administration began constructing the snaking, 4.5-mile road west of Route 30 two years ago. With a 55 mph speed limit, three roundabouts to control flow and no traffic signals, the bypass is expected to absorb about two-thirds of the rush-hour traffic along the Hampstead portion of Route 30.

Some Carroll County residents say they thought the bypass would never be built. And despite news that the bypass will open six months behind schedule, enthusiasm about the road abounds.

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For decades, politicians in the Republican-dominated county pressed state officials to build the road. But it was not until 2003, when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. became Maryland’s first Republican governor since 1969, that the effort gained traction.

“That’s an area of the state that has felt neglected for many years, so when we won, it made sense that they thought they might get a break,” Ehrlich said. “In my visits through towns there, I saw that you didn’t have to be a traffic engineer to see [the problems].”