HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The section of M14 Passing Wines Elementary (from 94 junction to 23 junction) was constructed with an incorrect mixture of concrete resulting in a "hard top" in the 1960s, which makes the road loudly "sing". This results in unusually disruptive highway noise at Wines Elementary (only meters away from M14) and the surrounding neighborhood, which negatively affects learning and public health. The only reason sound walls were not built with the highways was that the Federal Highway Administration did not require traffic noise studies for new highways until the mid 1970s.
MDOT refused to address the noise problem when they "repaired" the road in 2016, despite a community effort requesting them to use diamond grinding on the hard top as a remedy. Instead the repairs have caused an even worse rumble strip effect by subdividing concrete slabs, adding joints between old and new concrete. You can read more about the 1960s campaign against building M14, in addition to the 2015 campaign below. MDOT is now planning the same kind of patchwork repair in 2023 without any noise mitigation measures, and MDOT acknowledges this could further increase the noise to our community.  Now is the time to act by lobbying MDOT and our elected representatives to address this problem by resurfacing the road in 2023!