‘Beer bottles, mattresses, ladders’: Maryland crews tackle cleanup of 17,000 miles of roadway

Crews spent hours picking their way along the shoulder of Interstate 370 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and by noon, they had already filled huge trash bags full of what either falls or gets tossed from cars and trucks. It’s part of “Operation Clean Sweep,” the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration’s continuing effort to clear trash and debris from state roads. And the crews have a lot of ground to cover: MDOT SHA maintains more than 17,000 miles of non-tolled state roads.