MDOT’s Threat to Take Away Transportation Project Funding the State Never Promised
The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) is the transportation planning organization for the Washington, D.C. region and is federally mandated to produce a long-range transportation plan.
At its June 16 meeting, the TPB voted to remove the I-495/I-270 P3 project from the plan and the air quality conformity analysis required by the Clean Air Act. This was a significant setback for the public private partnership (P3) toll lane project since a project must be part of a region’s long-range plan and conformity analysis before it can secure federal environmental approval.
If the TPB’s decision to remove the project from the long-range plan is not reversed, the project cannot move forward.
Project backers have scrambled to salvage the P3 project. A motion to reconsider and reverse the TPB’s decision, and restore the project to the region’s long-range plan is on the agenda for the next TPB meeting on July 21. Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Deputy Secretary Earl Lewis is trying to persuade TPB members who voted against the I-495/I-270 P3 project, or who abstained, to change their votes and support the P3 project, or see other transportation projects in the long-range plan that they want, defunded (see his letter here).
Delegate Marc Korman, Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Environment and Transportation, reviewed the list of projects that MDOT is threatening to defund.
He determined that almost all of these projects lack State funding commitments, are not in the State’s six-year capital program for transportation, the Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP), and are not planned for funding. Read the analysis on Twitter or as a PDF.
Action Item: Urge Our TPB Members to Stand Firm
Write today to TPBcomment@mwcog.org (Attn: Chairman Allen). Explain in your own words why the TPB should stand by its vote to remove the I-495/I-270 toll lane P3 project from the regional plan. An email to this address will be circulated to all TPB members. Your email needs to be sent out as soon as possible. The meeting and re-vote will be Wednesday, July 21.
The June TPB vote to remove the toll-lane project from the National Capital Region’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) could have ended the fatally flawed toll lane P3 scheme. But the Governor and MDOT are demanding a re-vote and applying enormous pressure on local and State elected and appointed officials who serve on the TPB to change their votes and keep the project alive.
Your emails and letters have been powerful and have had significant impact. Our elected and appointed officials represent us on the TPB. This will be a very important vote for the TPB. It will either be a vote to preserve the integrity of the transportation planning process, or it will be a surrender to political pressure. Please keep the pressure on your elected and appointed officials to stop this ill-conceived project.
We cannot let coercion and misinformation smother the defects of this misguided scheme. We know that while the cost of driving in the toll lanes will steadily increase over the next 50 years, there will be no relief from congestion in the so-called free lanes. Traffic gridlock and bottlenecks will get worse. We know the project will harm our health, homes, communities, and environment.
Testimonies at the Maryland Transportation Authority Hearings
The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Board voted to advance the predevelopment design contract (the Phase 1 P3 Agreement) for the toll lane project. MDTA is responsible for setting toll rates and managing toll collections. By law, the public must have the opportunity to comment on proposed toll rate ranges. Hearings were held on July 12 and 14.
Testimonies against the project and the exorbitant toll rates proposed by MDTA can be found at https://dontwiden270.org/mdta-hearing.