If you’re headed down the ocean this weekend, as the saying goes, it’s almost a sure bet that depending on what time you leave to head east over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Kent Island, you will spend part of the time during your trip snarled in traffic. And if you live on the Eastern or Western Shore, your commute or your drive doing errands will be slowed down too. The traffic that tangles shore roadways is not just a matter of inconvenience. For firefighters, police officers and medical personnel it can sometimes be, literally, a matter of life and death.

The first span of the Bay Bridge was built in 1952. 20 years later, a second span was built from Annapolis to Kent Island to relieve congestion. Nearly 50 years later, is it time for a third span? If so, where? Up north in Harford County? Should it connect Aberdeen and Cecilton? Or in the South in St. Mary’s County, connecting Lexington Park and Princess Anne? Or, at any number of points in between?

A new study by the Maryland Transportation Authority that considered these options has created controversy.The report was five years in the making and it cost $5 million dollars. It outlines options that include building another span next to the first two, putting a bridge somewhere else, or building nothing at all.

Today on Midday, a conversation about the bridges' impact on traffic on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay.

Tom's first guest is Queen Anne’s County Commissioner Jim Moran. He joins us by phone.

Later in the program, Tom speaks with Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman. He joins us on Zoom.

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