The Moore Administration – away from the public eye and counter to the needs of the vast majority – continues working on multiple fronts to get toll lanes started on Maryland I-495 and I-270. At the same time, on the public-interest side of the toll-lane project divide, the Maryland Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are appealing a court ruling that let the Moore-Hogan plan stand (see “Eye-Opening Brief,” below).
Here's what we know about MDOT’s latest “stealth” actions, and what the powerful grassroots legal appeal has to say.
MDOT Action #1: Conducting toll lane-related field work…in Virginia
In May, June, July, and August of this year, the Virginia Department of Transportation sent out notifications that MDOT would conduct field work along VA’s I-495 in support of “…a new American Legion Bridge and expanding multimodal transportation options along the I-495 and I-270 corridor…” Typical of messaging on this project, the notifications do not mention toll lanes. Also typical, MDOT did not itself notify the MD public.
This field work matters because it shows MDOT actively implementing Larry Hogan’s original plan. Governor Moore –because of pressure from Virginia? pro-toll-lane interests? – is taking steps now to ensure MDOT’s proposed toll lanes will connect with VDOT’s private toll lanes.
But the Moore Administration is getting ahead of itself. It has no funding for the multi-billion dollar project (see “Events May Complicate..."). And as far as the public knows, MD and VA still have no formal toll lane agreement (more on that in Action #2, below). The Administration is potentially digging MD and its taxpayers into a deep hole.
2022 MDOT rendering of its toll-lane construction commitment in VA, south of the American Legion Bridge. MDOT would build the brown portion of the highway in this rendering; VDOT would build the blue.
MDOT Action #2: Apparently allowing VA to start design phase and permitting efforts (p. 3) for construction of electronic toll lane signs in Montgomery County, MD
MDOT signed a "secret" agreement with VDOT in May of this year – without giving the Maryland public or our local officials a heads up. We know about it only because a local VA news site linked to a VDOT website that posted the agreement.
This so-called signage agreement allows VDOT to start construction on its electronic toll lane signs in MD. It also allows VA to acquire right of way in MD and relocate utilities along MD I-495. And – this is huge – it requires VDOT and MDOT to negotiate a new bi-state agreement for the American Legion Bridge and I-270 project (see “MDOT signed...”).
It's a big deal. It gives VDOT and its private contractors a toe-hold in MD. And it means the Moore Administration could be negotiating a new and immensely important, high-stakes toll lane agreement right now, behind closed doors – as though the public and our officials have no stake in the outcome, no part to play.
MDOT Action #3: Cooperating with VDOT on extending VA’s private toll lanes into Prince George’s County, MD
MDOT supports VDOT’s Southside project despite serious concerns and opposition from WMATA and Prince George’s County, and despite clear evidence that the toll lanes would functionally preclude expansion of the Blue Line over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
In the absence of any Moore Administration explanation of why it supports VDOT’s project or what the benefits to Marylanders would be, we’re left to see this is just one more way for the Governor to impose toll lanes on an unwilling public along Maryland I-495.
Good News: The Legal Appeal is an Eye-Opening Page-Turner
The opening brief the Sierra Club and fellow plaintiffs submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a reasoned, fully supported, ultimately damning look at what the Moore Administration would do. Selected quotes from the brief (below) paint a stark picture of some of the toll lane project’s profound flaws.
“The Agencies [MDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)] ignored, denied, and downplayed evidence of serious health and environmental harms, rather than offering the public and decision makers the full and fair accounting of the project’s impacts that federal law requires” (p. 3).
“To add four lanes to the Beltway and two to I-270, MDOT would pave over 100 acres of land, eliminate more than 400 acres of forest, damage eight linear miles of streams and take 15 acres of parks…” (p. 10).
“Adding lanes to the Beltway and I-270 would draw tens of thousands more vehicles onto these highways each day. The new lanes would also bring vehicles closer to the neighborhoods bordering the highways, exposing residents, school children, and workers to higher levels of [fine particulate matter pollution, called PM2.5]” (pp 12-13).
“Breathing PM2.5 can damage the lungs and the heart, aggravate asthma, and cause heart attacks and even premature death” (p. 12).
“The Agencies decided years before completing their environmental review that they would not assess the highway expansion project’s PM2.5 pollution or its health impacts. Apparently, no amount of public comment, contrary scientific studies and EPA findings, or guidance from experts the Agencies consulted, could sway them otherwise, or even motivate a substantive response” (p. 43).
“The project would worsen congestion in North Bethesda near the toll lanes’ endpoints on the I-270 spurs. Compared with the No Build Alternative, traffic speeds would sometimes drop by close to 50 mph in this area under the project” (p. 21).
“According to the Agencies’ own data, building the toll lanes would lead to as much as a 40 mile-per-hour (mph) decrease in northbound speed during the afternoon rush hour around the I-370 interchange in Gaithersburg” (p. 46).
“The Agencies’ own staff acknowledged that the project’s purported congestion relief would not be ‘equally distributed.’ They observed, for example, that the project would worsen traffic on I-270’s general purpose lanes during afternoon rush hour.
They also expressed concerns about the ‘significant’ degradation of eastbound traffic during morning rush hour on the Beltway’s Inner Loop near the toll lanes’ endpoints” (p. 46).
“But they never acknowledged that the project would contribute to that ‘heavy congestion’ on I-270, as demonstrated by their modeling. Nor did they disclose that most of the segments that would experience project-induced increases in congestion are located in environmental justice communities” (p. 46).
For a more comprehensive look at some of the many, many reasons to oppose the toll lane project, read the entire, powerful, grassroots brief. A decision on the appeal is expected next year.
And a Different Kind of Page-Turner
An excellent new article in StreetsBlog USA skewers every argument Wes Moore and Larry Hogan ever made for building toll lanes where they aren't needed or wanted. Read it, share it, and know that people everywhere are opposing these misguided projects.