Mark January 18, 2023 on your calendar
That’s the day Governor Hogan leaves office. The toll lane project has always been his. When he goes, the project could go with him. Unless, that is, he and MDOT try to beat the clock and recklessly commit Marylanders to this damaging project before he leaves office.
We can’t let that happen. You can help.
Despite USDOT’s recent OK for the toll lanes, MDOT must still clear significant hurdles before the end of Hogan’s term. See highlighted ones below, along with the important, related Action Item.
We’re nearing the endgame, but this project is still vulnerable.
Toll lane hurdle #1: Legal action
Hogan’s project could face legal challenges, including from a broad coalition of grassroots and advocacy groups. The Sierra Club of Maryland and 40+ partners, including the City of Rockville and DontWiden270.org, signed extensive comments on the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). Those comments, written by nationally recognized legal and technical experts, form the basis for potential litigation.
Action item: Support the Maryland Sierra Club’s legal fund
The Sierra Club’s "Maryland Smart Growth Defense Fund” is a key component of the effort to stop this harmful project. The Fund was formed for this project and helps pay for essential technical and legal expertise and legal counsel.
We hope you will contribute. To donate by credit card, click here. To donate by check, make your check payable to "Sierra Club Foundation". In the memo, write "MD Smart Growth Defense Fund." Mail to Sierra Club Foundation, 2101 Webster Street, Suite 1250, Oakland CA 94612. Donations to the Fund are tax deductible. Thank you!
More hurdles for toll lanes
Statutory delays to MDOT’s mad dash:
Maryland law requires 30 days for legislative review of P3 project contracts before they go to the three-member Board of Public Works for an up or down vote.
MDOT has to give the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission 60 days to review the project and make recommendations.
A challenge to the fairness of the bid process that won’t go away:
The next stage of the lawsuit filed by a losing bidder for the MDOT toll-lane contract is expected soon.
Issues with Australian conglomerate Transurban:
MDOT’s private for-profit consortium still doesn’t have a construction partner, despite having shortlisted three finalists a year ago.
The company is under fire in Australia as a “monopoly of monopolies” for its “screwnami” practices.
Transurban’s CEO recently said the I-495/I-270 toll lane project in Maryland still had “‘quite a few issues’…and it was uncertain if financial paperwork would be signed off by the end of the year.”
Flash of clarity (just one) in the Washington Post Editorial Board’s 20th Toll Lane Endorsement
A grain of truth makes it into the Washington Post’s newest pro-toll lane editorial. In the space of a single sentence, the Post stops pushing MDOT’s glossy, false scenario and admits that what it wants is exactly what Transurban, that “monopoly of monopolies” (see above) is selling: a high-priced means of escape for the wealthy, made possible by permanently induced congestion for the rest of us.
The sentence: “Mr. Hogan has stood nearly alone among Maryland’s major elected officials in pushing to add the toll lanes, which drivers would use voluntarily to escape the usual crawl in the regular lanes.” The Post is admitting that virtually nobody wants the toll lanes. The Post is admitting that after the $5 billion project is complete, traffic will keep on crawling in the free lanes the same as before.
So there it is, in a single sentence. Transurban’s business model, Hogan’s real transportation “policy”, and the lobbyists’ interests, all aligned. That’s what MDOT, with its pablum-like outreach and its thousands of opaque pages, has worked so hard to obscure. Stunning.