Maryland State Highway Administration
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The Maryland State Highway Administration (abbreviated MDSHA, MSHA, or simply SHA) is the state agency responsible for maintaining Maryland state highways outside of Baltimore City. It is tasked with maintaining non-tolled bridges throughout the state, removing snow from the state's major thoroughfares, administering the state's "adopt-a-highway" program, and both developing and maintaining the state's freeway system. It is a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation and is currently overseen by Neil Pederson. In light of the results of the 2006 Elections, however, it is possible that incoming Governor Martin O'Malley will appoint a new head of SHA.
The headquarters for MSHA is located in Baltimore City. This building houses numerous divisions and offices, such as:
- Office of Preliminary Planning and Engineering
- Office of Highway Design
- Office of Bridge Design
- Office of Environmental Design
- Office of Construction
- Office of Policy and Research
- Office of Real Estate
- Office of CHART and ITS Development (Note that "CHART" is an acronym for Coordinated Highways Action Response Team and provides incident response services throughout the State, though the only provide regular patrols on interstates and a select few major arterials.)
MSHA also maintains four research labs located throughout the State, as well as the Office of Traffic and Safety (OOTS) located in Hanover -- which houses several additional divisions. Some other services provided at the OOTS complex include:
- Traffic Engineering Design Division, which is responsible for the development of new traffic signals, signal modifications, upgrades, and signal phasing.
- Office of Maintenance, which provides assistance with recurring maintenance tasks that require more intensive study -- particularly roadway safety and resurfacing projects.
- The Statewide Operations Center, a part of the Office of Maintenance, operates signals and is responsible for dispatching incident response teams. Responders may including police, fire, medical, CHART, HazMat, MEMA, environmental, or maintenance teams. This facility is also equipped to operate as a Statewide Emergency Operations Center.
- The signal shop, which provides personnel and equipment for the maintenance and programming of signals along State roadways in every county except Montgomery County.
- The sign shop, which designs and fabricates signing for use throughout the entire state.
It should be noted that while OOTS and the Districts oversee the installation, modification, operation, maintenance, and removal of traffic signals along State roadways, Montgomery County differs in that it is responsible for the operation and maintenance of all signals within the County -- even those along State roadways. However, the Districts and OOTS still controls decisions regarding the installation, modification (including phasing), and removal of signals. A result of this agreement is that it relieves MSHA of some of the additional resource cost of the regular duties with regards to signals.
[edit] Districts
There are seven districts in the State. These districts, at the least, have divisions for traffic, construction, maintenance, and utilities. Each district also oversees several maintenance shops -- typically one per county. The following is a table of the districts, counties within their jurisdiction, and their respective headquarters.
