If you’ve ever doubted the impact of grassroots toll-lane opposition, take a look at this breakthrough.
A grassroots-funded effort led by the Sierra Club to draft legal comments on MDOT’s SDEIS has produced an astounding indictment -- written by nationally-known legal and technical experts -- of the project’s deceits and failings.
A few of the revelations in this powerhouse document:
If the toll lanes are built, the only choice drivers will face is “between two bad options: extreme congestion vs. extremely high tolls” (p. 20 of the document). We know the 2026 rush hour tolls from the GW Parkway to Shady Grove will go as high as $50 each way!
The traffic model MDOT used to plan this mega-billion-dollar project was, among its many deficiencies, incapable of capturing queues behind bottlenecks or accurately predicting traffic volumes (pgs. 18-40).
MDOT is knowingly sacrificing our safety to maximize revenue (pgs. 71-80). The plan takes the inner shoulder away from the free lanes and gives it to the toll lanes (pgs. 76-77). It effectively forces big-rig trucks into the reduced number of free lanes, a known cause of serious accidents, especially at entrances and exits (pgs. 73-74).
Preferred alternative: 1 outside shoulder for 5 free lanes; 1 inside shoulder for 2 toll lanes.
The Sierra Club’s comprehensive legal comments are signed by 50+ advocacy groups and the City of Rockville. They provide not only the basis for future legal action, but fuel to spur our grassroots efforts.
See below for actions you can take right now. Then read on for the project’s projected timeline and coming hurdles. (Preview: project construction can’t begin until at least fall 2022 when a construction contract may be voted on.) At the end, you’ll see a big thank you to our readers.
Action Item: Know the facts, share the facts
Thanks to the Sierra Club documentation, facts about the toll-lane scam are finally available to the public in clear, authoritative form. We urge you to click THIS LINK and read about any or all aspects that interest (or infuriate) you. Summaries of the new findings are on pages i-iii of the document and also pasted at the end of this newsletter. Click in the document’s table of contents for detailed discussions and supporting evidence.
Please share this newsletter and your thoughts about the project with at least one person who may not yet be convinced that the toll lanes will do no good, only harm. If you know someone who lives along upper I-270, please reach out. Residents there are hearing lies about congestion relief. The Sierra Club document will tell them the truth.
Project Timelines and Vulnerabilities
The next few months offer excellent opportunities for grassroots action aimed at elected officials, candidates for office, and federal agencies reviewing the toll-lane project. Watch for details in coming newsletters.
MDOT’s timeline for the federally-mandated review process
Per MDOT, the public submitted approximately 3,000 public comments on the DEIS and 2,000 on the SDEIS. MDOT has to respond to the substantive ones and issue a final EIS, expected in May 2022, although the timing, here and elsewhere, may slip.
The public will have 30 days after issuance of the FEIS to submit comments.
Sometime after that, the Federal Government will issue its Record of Decision (ROD) on the project.
Parties, including our advocacy coalition, have 150 days from issuance of the ROD to file any lawsuit.
Meanwhile…
Between now and fall 2022, toll-giant Transurban will be finalizing its bottom-line-first design for Phase 1 South.
If the project should make it through the federal review process, the Board of Public Works could vote on the Phase 1 South construction contract in fall 2022.
Construction cannot begin until the contract is approved.
None of this is inevitable. The project faces big hurdles and sources of delay.
Lawsuits, possibly including from the Sierra Club and its 50 co-sponsors.
The ongoing legal challenge from a losing bidder for the P3 contract.
Ongoing initiatives by grassroots activists (all of us) to persuade our elected officials, candidates competing for our 2022 votes, and relevant federal agencies to reject the toll-lane project’s precedent-setting subversion of the public good.
The potential for unfavorable federal decisions.
Outcomes of the hugely consequential 2022 election. If we elect a governor and comptroller who oppose the P3, and if project approvals stretch into their new terms, we will see the end of this project.
Grassroots activists are key to shutting down this plan. Your efforts matter! Thank you!
Because so many of our elected officials, from Governor Hogan and Peter Franchot on down, fail to put the public interest first, grassroots groups have an out-sized role in stopping this project. Every thoughtful and/or outraged email you send opposing the toll lanes, every door-hanger you distribute, every newsletter you pass on has an impact and makes a difference. We are counting on each other to keep fighting. Thank you for what you do!
For your reference: Summaries of the main points in the Sierra Club’s legal comments
These are broad summaries in the document’s own words (pgs. i-iii). Click in the document’s table of contents for detailed discussions and supporting evidence.
The SDEIS fails to disclose the significant financial costs the preferred alternative would impose on the state and its citizens, including a direct subsidy to a private developer, costs of relocation of utilities, decreases in property values, shortfall payments, and other significant financial risks associated with the Public Private Partnership (“P3”) Program.
There are serious flaws in the traffic analysis. Moreover, even with these flaws, the information presented in the SDEIS shows that the preferred alternative will be only marginally effective at reducing congestion on the Beltway and I-270, will create new and larger traffic problems at key interchanges and merge areas, and will irreparably harm Maryland’s irreplaceable natural, historical, and environmental resources.
The SDEIS does not adequately analyze air emissions and ignores the harms the preferred alternative’s construction and operation will cause from particulate matter, greenhouse gas, and carbon monoxide emissions locally, regionally, and nationally.
The SDEIS ignores the negative impacts of the preferred alternative on safety on the toll lanes, general purpose (“GP”) lanes, and arterial roads.
Like the DEIS process, the SDEIS process has also violated [the National Environmental Policy Act].
The SDEIS fails to adequately address the preferred alternative’s significant adverse effects on historic and cultural resources, which include both direct and constructive uses of historic properties.
The SDEIS ignores the harms that [Environmental Justice] communities will suffer during construction and operation of the preferred alternative, including air quality impacts from newly created bottlenecks and impacts from the loss of an otherwise free lane on I-270.
The Project has fundamentally changed so many times (including its footprint, phasing, and procurement type from fixed price to progressive predevelopment public-private partnership) that the public cannot understand what is going on, let alone which description is accurate.
The SDEIS fails to perform significant analyses regarding nearly every single adverse impact of the preferred alternative, and instead postpones those analyses until either an FEIS is issued, or construction has begun. Contrary to promoting public participation and informed decision-making as required by NEPA, the SDEIS hinders the public’s understanding of the preferred alternative and will lead to less informed decision-making.
The SDEIS, in referencing the DEIS, continues to rely on documents and data that the Agencies have refused to release to the public, despite numerous requests from the public, in violation of NEPA.