GPS confusion to blame for errant rigs

TOWSON, Md. - There’s no shortage of tractor-trailers on Dundalk’s Beachwood Road making sweeping turns over expansive spans of asphalt, but if they mistakenly end up on Beechwood Road in Idlewylde, they get stuck.
 
"So we ended up taking the signs down so he could back up over the curb in somebody's yard up there... had the neighbors move their cars,” said Art Houseman who lives on neighboring St. Albans Road, “So it took about four hours to get him out of here."  

After all, from bumper-to-bumper, a rig that got stuck in August measured 53 feet and was carrying a 37-ton load.
    
The confusion comes down to a single letter---Beachwood with an ‘a’ in Dundalk versus the double ‘e’ version in Towson, and a simple typo in their GPS systems sent the 18-wheelers down the truck route to nowhere.
    
After a half dozen such mishaps left behind damaged yards, utility poles and water lines, art’s wife, Bonnie, had had enough.

"Our neighbors and friends were getting their property destroyed.  We had an electric pole go down once and children walking up and down St. Albans.  We have no sidewalks, and they... when they come up here, they're not coming up here slow."
    
The Idlewylde Community Association appealed to the county for help, and Councilman David Marks has navigated through a number of agencies to come up with a solution.

"We're going to put signs at various intersections that inform trucks that those types of vehicles are not allowed in that neighborhood,” said Marks, “Secondly, our Department of Public Works has renamed the block of Beachwood Road in Dundalk to a different name.  So that will hopefully help the GPS issue, and then I've reached out to the Maryland Department of Transportation and they're going to be talking to the motor carrier industry."

In a few weeks, county workers will post signs on a number of streets in Idlewylde alerting truck drivers that their rigs are not permitted in that neighborhood.