Blasting Scheduled For Tuesday At North Tunnel In Ellicott City Will Halt Traffic

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — Blasting will be done Tuesday between 9 and 11 a.m. in the 8800 block of Frederick Road at the North Tunnel construction site.

Traffic will come to a complete stop for approximately 10 minutes during the work and those in the area may hear noise from the blasting.

The Howard County Police Department will be on site to assist in redirecting traffic around the blasting site during the brief closure, officials said. Once the blast is complete, the road will reopen immediately, officials added.

The project’s construction manager, Kiewit-Traylor Joint Venture, reviewed the blasting procedures, regulatory requirements and expectations at a Dec. 5 public meeting. The blasting work will take place on an as needed basis and weather permitting should wrap up by winter 2027.

The 5,000-foot-long tunnel planned for Ellicott City has been designed to carry water away from Main Street and into the Patapsco River. The tunnel will be about 18 feet in diameter and run up to 100-feet underground, just north of Main Street. It will be able to carry 26,000 gallons of stormwater per second and move water away from streets and foundations of Ellicott City and the West End and directly into the Patapsco River. The extended north tunnel is one of seven flood mitigation projects in the EC Safe and Sound Plan.

"The North Tunnel is a transformative project that will serve as a model for flood mitigation across our nation and world. As we prepare to break ground on this once in a generation project this summer, I invite our residents to help name the tunnel boring machine that will be used to construct the North Tunnel," said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.