A portion of Falls Road will be closed temporarily from Clipper Mill Road, south to below the 29th Street Bridge, to clean up debris from the July 30 storm, the Department of Public works said today. This two-mile-stretch of roadway will be closed to traffic on Monday (August 15) at 4 a.m.

The closure will allow crews to mobilize a crane that will remove debris, driftwood, a vehicle, and two dumpsters that washed into the Jones Falls during the storm, DPW said, in a press release.

“These items have been prevented from moving further downstream, and into the tunnel under the Jones Falls Expressway, by a drift catcher,” the release said, noting that the city-installed drift catcher consists of a cluster of concrete columns.

City maintenance crews routinely monitor the drift collector and clean it once a month. But for this large removal job, the City will use Civil Construction LLC, an on-call contractor.

The road closure is expected to be in place for approximately 1 week to allow this work to occur, barring any other major storms events. Approximately 50 tons of material has been removed from the drift catcher following similar storms.

Traffic will be detoured during the closure and detours will be posted.

DPW estimates the cost for this work is $170,000, the release said.