“This interstate project will address one of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the country, create more jobs and opportunities, and expand bike, transit and pedestrian infrastructure,” Hogan (R) said in a statement. “It is exactly the kind of bold and forward-thinking solution that Marylanders have been crying out for, for years if not decades.”
The highway project is one of Hogan’s signature transportation initiatives, and the term-limited governor has been racing to lock it in before he leaves office in January. Backers say adding two toll lanes in each direction on sections of the Beltway and 270 will alleviate traffic that makes commuting around the Washington region a misery for many drivers. But in the face of worsening climate change, transit advocates and some local officials have questioned funding a gigantic project to accommodate more cars.
The approval documents commitments the Maryland Department of Transportation has made to fund transit as part of the project. The contracting group the state intends to partner with would provide $300 million for transit in Montgomery County over the life of the project. The state transportation department would build a new facility and provide a fleet of buses, and allocate a further $60 million to design transit projects in the county.
Officials at the Federal Highway Administration had said earlier this month that they needed additional time to review the project’s environmental-impact studies. They missed an Aug. 5 target date for issuing their final sign-off, known as a record of decision.
Hogan wrote to the federal government blasting the holdup, arguing that the delay appeared to be politically motivated and that Maryland could take legal action.
The project faced a late challenge from advocates who alleged that there were signs of possible fraud in traffic modeling that officials had conducted as part of their final review. The highway administration asked the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center, which provides technical assistance to officials, to review those claims. The center’s review “did not find scientific integrity fraud” in the traffic modeling, according an FHWA memo released along with the record of decision.
The state is planning to add two toll lanes to the Beltway in each direction, between the Virginia side of a new and expanded American Legion Bridge and the exit for Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. The lanes would then extend up I-270 to Frederick. The regular lanes on the highways would remain toll-free.
The project is set to be managed as a public-private partnership, with a contractor holding a deal to finance, build and manage the toll lanes. A key next step will be for the Board of Public Works, a three-member panel chaired by Hogan, to approve a contract, locking the state into a 50-year agreement. A spokesman for Hogan did not immediately respond to a question about when the board might consider the contract.
This story is developing and will be updated.
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