Easton House Move: Traffic Perspective
December 12, 2019 | by Wes Guckert, PTP

When Expert House Movers, a Salisbury, Maryland-based company who specializes in moving large structures and objects, such as the Hatteras Lighthouse, was signed on to move the historic Galloway Mansion, located in Easton, Maryland, they realized they were going to need a partner to handle the traffic planning. After contacting several firms who were unable to handle a project of this size and scope, they were referred to The Traffic Group.

By way of background, getting the Galloway Mansion, which was built in 1764, to its new home in Queenstown, Maryland required picking up the whole house, driving it six miles through Easton, loading it on a barge, and then floating it 50 miles up the Chesapeake Bay. It will be restored to its original Georgian style.

While plans had been underway to move the house for the past two years, there was never a plan for how to handle the traffic portion. But The Traffic Group didn’t have the luxury of several years, or even months. They had to come up with a plan to move the house six miles through town within less than a month.

The daunting traffic portion of the plan included shutting down the main artery, Route 50, from 7 pm to 12 pm in the Easton, Maryland area. Because this is such a major undertaking, the state police were also involved as well as additional traffic control to keep commuters moving as much as possible. The Traffic Group also had to provide traffic studies for State Highway in short order, particularly since commuters were re-routed to 404. The traffic plan also required dropping every utility line crossing a road and pulling down four traffic signals with poles – which meant working with four separate utility companies to get this accomplished.

Recognizing the significant hurdles, the utility companies involved as well as State Highway were looking to The Traffic Group to figure out how to overcome the obstacles. The Traffic Group’s John Dirndorfer was point person on the project and presented the plan. With ongoing and regular meetings to make sure all parties had their “marching orders,” The Traffic Group honchoed the project from start to finish. Shortly into the planning phase, Dirndorfer recognized the idea of one company responsible for taking down four traffic signals in one night was too hard and unrealistic. Therefore, Dirndorfer had to contact and coordinate with four individual companies so that one company could be responsible for one signal.

From a traffic perspective, everything fell into place. Over the course of several nights, the sequence The Traffic Group had established and the plan to shut down the one main artery in the Easton area and divert traffic worked. Slowly the house moved to its new Queenstown home. WATCH VIDEO

In fact, John Hines, P.E., Electric Department Assistant Manager at Easton Utilities noted, “The traffic plan provided for the Easton House move project was extremely comprehensive and very impressive. Given the dangers working along state highways at night, we felt very confident that this plan protected our crews and provided the safest work zones possible. Each advancing phase during the course of the project was well communicated amongst all involved and we were never left feeling vulnerable during our work.”

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