Emergency work to repair a water valve under Hawkins Point Road, near Quarantine Road, will begin next week, and could continue until late March. Because the repair will impact traffic entering and exiting Interstate 695, the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) has been working with the Maryland Transportation Authority to minimize the disruption for motorists.

Permitting requirements were completed Wednesday for a DPW contractor to make the repairs.

Portable variable message boards will be in place for five days beginning today, Thursday, Feb. 28, alerting motorists on I-695 that the Exit 1 off ramps to Hawkins Point Road will be reduced to a single lane.

Including notification, traffic modification, construction, and repaving, DPW expects that the project will take about four weeks.

In the meantime, DPW will make sure the roadway is salted to help reduce the likelihood that water on the roadway freezes in cold weather. DPW’s contractor is also pumping down the leak to mitigate the amount of water that flows onto the street.