Critics of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to widen the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 with toll lanes say a draft budget proposal released Wednesday shows state officials never intended to build the projects they had warned would be cut if the highway expansion proposal stalled.
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Hogan (R) won a critical regional vote for the plan in July after his administration said it would need to cut five other major traffic-relief projects if the toll lanes weren’t approved — a possibility that alarmed some local officials in the congested Washington suburbs. Without the toll lane project’s private financing, the Maryland Department of Transportation said it would have to find $1.2 billion in other cost savings to replace the American Legion Bridge and make other highway improvements.
But when four of the five projects that appeared to have been saved by the toll lanes’ approval at the region’s Transportation Planning Board received no state budget allocation, some toll lane opponents said it proved their earlier assertions that MDOT’s warnings were meaningless.
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“I always thought the threats were empty, and this proves that they were,” said Montgomery council member Evan Glass (D-At Large), a toll lanes critic and member of the region’s Transportation Planning Board. “These phantom projects were never in the previous budgets, and no one should be surprised that they weren’t in this budget.”
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The four unfunded projects are a Corridor Cities Transitway bus system in upper Montgomery County, a new interchange at Georgia Avenue and Norbeck Road in Montgomery, widening Route 301 in Prince George’s County, and improving Route 180 in Frederick County. The fifth project — a full Beltway interchange at the Greenbelt Metro station in Prince George’s — is slated to receive $3 million for engineering.
Some Montgomery officials said they were particularly concerned that MDOT made no budgetary commitment to design a Corridor Cities Transitway, part of a deal the Hogan administration had reached with a majority of the Montgomery council to secure its support for the toll lanes.
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“We gave away a lot and got bubkes,” said Montgomery Executive Marc Elrich (D), who opposed the Hogan toll lanes plan and the council-negotiated deal.
MDOT officials say they hadn’t promised to include the five projects in the state’s six-year construction budget, only to keep them in the region’s 20-year-plus transportation plan, along with the toll lanes. Keeping projects in the long-range plan, which the Transportation Planning Board approves, makes them eligible for future state funding, said MDOT spokeswoman Erin Henson.
MDOT had to clinch the July planning board vote after toll lane opponents convinced the board to remove them from the regional plan in June. That would have made the highway expansion ineligible for federal environmental approval. MDOT then released the list of potential projects to be cut if the toll lanes weren’t restored, a move that prompted Elrich to accuse Hogan of “arm-twisting.”
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“These projects and others will be discussed with local jurisdictions … to determine which projects are the top priorities as more funding becomes available,” Henson said in an email.
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She said the MDOT budget proposal doesn’t designate money for a Corridor Cities Transitway because it would come from a “development rights fee” the companies would pay to the state for the right to build and operate the toll lanes. That money can’t be committed, Henson said, until the state signs a 50-year contract with the private concessionaire.
“We are not able to program that money until it exists,” Henson said.
Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci called the criticisms “sad mostly” but said they “won’t distract” from the state’s “historic” transportation budget.
“The small group of Montgomery County politicians who would keep their constituents stuck in soul-crushing traffic forever are now left to flail and distort,” Ricci said in an email.
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Under Hogan’s plan, both highways would get two toll lanes in each direction. The regular lanes would be rebuilt and remain free, except for I-270 carpool lanes, which would be converted to toll lanes. Hogan has said the lanes would allow motorists to escape backups while opponents say widening the highways would cause too much environmental damage.
Board's reversal revives Maryland plan for toll lanes on Beltway, I-270
Prince George’s, including both the executive branch and county council, switched its regional vote on the toll lanes from a “no” to a “yes” after MDOT listed two county projects on the at-risk list.
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Prince George’s council member Deni Taveras (D-District 2), who serves on the Transportation Planning Board, said the county changed its vote to ensure that its high-priority traffic-relief projects would remain eligible for state aid.
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“We need to have that conversation,” Taveras said of the governor’s draft budget.
Montgomery Council member Hans Riemer (D-At Large), who led the council’s negotiations with MDOT, said he will ask the agency to specify that the Corridor Cities Transitway or another upcounty bus system will receive money as part of the toll lanes project.
After the state finalizes a 50-year deal with a private concessionaire, Riemer said, “We’ll want to see actual numbers on paper with a clear budgeted commitment.”
Hogan commits money to bus lanes as part of Maryland toll lanes plan for I-270, Beltway
Frederick officials said they were happy to see the MDOT draft budget include $10.7 million for engineering to widen Route 15, a chokepoint through the city of Frederick. That project is a higher priority than the Route 180 improvements that didn’t make it in, said Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor (D).
Though no money is allocated to widen the road, O’Connor said, the engineering funding “is important to keep this widening project moving forward.”
MDOT officials will meet with local leaders about the draft budget throughout the fall before providing a final proposal to the General Assembly in January.