An Urgent Call to Action – Stop the Toll-Highway P3 Boondoggle

Join the Rally to Stop the P3 Boondoggle

 

When:  Tuesday, June 8 at 12:00 noon

 

In spite of intense opposition by the neighborhoods and communities that will feel its sharpest impact, the State is pushing ahead with a vote next Tuesday to approve a contract for the I-495/I-270 toll lane widening plan — the first step in their march toward final approval of this misguided project. In our relentless opposition over the past three years, we’ve already won the war of words.

Now it’s time for each of us to stand up, turn out, and make our voices heard. As we head toward the 2022 election, our local and State leaders need to see and hear us. They need to know that stopping this threat is an urgent priority for action, and that we expect their help and support in defeating this fatally-flawed scheme.

That’s why we’re organizing a massive protest on Tuesday at noon at the project’s epicenter. The time is now. This is one of those moments when protecting our quality of life perfectly aligns with defeating bad government policy. Our success depends on you. Join us on Tuesday!

 

Where:  First Baptist Church Rockville

       55 Adclare Road, Rockville 20850

 

Driving directions:  From I-270, take Exit 6 East toward Rockville. Make the first right onto Adclare Road. Park all the way closest to the hill, as directed.

 

The rally will be outdoors.

 

 

 

The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Vote

 

With less than 4 days notice, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) called an emergency session of the MDTA to vote on approving a contract for private toll lanes on I-270 and the Beltway under a public-private partnership (P3). The vote will be held on Tuesday morning, June 8th. 

 

There has been a lack of transparency with the public and affected local governments on this P3, which would be in effect for 50 years. 

 

Our statewide coalition of allies and organizations opposing the P3 have told the MDTA to delay their vote on any toll-lane contract until the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is completed. The FEIS needs to be finalized and available for public review before any contracts are awarded by the State.

We shouldn’t allow the MDTA's vote to go unchallenged! We’re asking you to come out and join us at our rally on Tuesday at Noon. That’s the most important thing you can do now that will have the greatest impact.

 

Must-Read Articles and Opinions

MDOT Suddenly Changes the “Preferred Alternative” for Toll Lanes

MDOT Reveals a “New” Plan, and Toll Setting Gets Started

 

Back on January 27, 2021, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) disclosed that they had selected Alternative 9 from among the build options as their preferred alternative for widening I-495 and I-270.  Alternative 9 was a high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes network that added two HOT- managed lanes in each direction on I-495 and I-270.

Then, less than 4 months later, on May 12th, MDOT announced that their recommended preferred alternative (RPA) would now consist of only Phase 1 South. The new RPA focuses solely on building a new American Legion Bridge (ALB) and creating two HOT lanes in each direction on the ALB and I-270 to I-370. On I-270, the RPA proposes adding one HOT- managed lane and converting the existing high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane into an HOT- managed lane. There will be no action at this time on I-495 east of the I-270 eastern spur. Find out what’s wrong with MDOT’s latest RPA in the sections below on Phase 1 South, Cost Concerns, and More Highway Widening.

The Phase 1 South toll rate range setting process was presented to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Board on May 20, 2021. The meeting video can be played here; the Phase 1 range setting process discussion begins at 2:07:00. Relevant meeting documents can be found in tabs 11-12 (pp. 60-154) and the MDTA press release. The MDTA Board voted to move forward with the process, including public hearings on the tolling proposal. Written public comments and call-in testimony will be accepted for the official record from May 20 through August 12, 2021. Dontwiden270.org will provide further information when it becomes available.

 

Action Item

Your emails and letters to public officials and others about widening I-270 and I-495 have been powerful and had considerable impact. Thanks to all of you who wrote to the Metropolitan Washington Transportation Planning Board (TPB) as requested in the Urgent Action Alert in our last newsletter. Your comments led the TPB to ask the Federal authorities for a 6 month extension to allow more time to study the complex issues involved.

Please continue to write and phone and keep the pressure on key people and agencies to stop this poorly conceived project.

 

If you haven’t already done so, write Comptroller Peter Franchot care of Emily Gontrum at egontrum@marylandtaxes.gov and/or call Comptroller Franchot at 301-332-1961 and leave a voice mail or text. Comptroller Franchot is the deciding vote when the Maryland Board of Public Works (BPW) votes on contracts associated with the P3 project. He is running for Governor. Tell him that no P3 agreement should be voted on until the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is completed. And be sure to say that if the project is approved, Maryland taxpayers could be stuck with hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses and future costs.

 

New Recommended Preferred Alternative for Phase 1 South

The new RPA focuses solely on a new ALB and two HOT-managed lanes in each direction on the ALB and I-270 to I-370. I-495 east of I-270 is off the table for now; however, MDOT has made clear that “the RPA does not suggest that improvements will not be needed on the top side and east side of I-495. If the new RPA is selected at the conclusion of the Managed Lane Study, consideration of improvements to remaining parts of the interstate system would advance separately…”

 

The project has been scaled back. But as eloquently expressed in a Sierra Club Statement: “This project is fundamentally flawed and has been from the start. Now it is a smaller flawed proposal.” This P3 is an environmental, financial, socio-economic, and drivers’ nightmare. There will be years of noise and pollution during construction of the new lanes. The project will cause enormous harm to affected communities and gridlock on local roads as people make their way to and from the new toll entrances.   

 

The tolls will be unaffordable for the vast majority of drivers, leading to increased congestion in the free lanes. In fact, there will be fewer free lanes since the current 2-person HOV lanes on I-270, which are restricted for only 3 hours per day Monday-Friday and always free, will be converted to HOT–managed lanes at all times. Importantly, this project will not reduce regional traffic congestion. Effective traffic planning requires a multimodal transportation plan with transit options.

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Bottlenecks

Not only will there be continued gridlock at key traffic choke points, but as shown in the graphic, there will be two major bottlenecks that will create massive traffic jams. The plan changes the locations of traffic congestion rather than alleviating them. There will be a new bottleneck where the new I-270 toll lanes merge into the unchanged I-495 lanes.

 

The project will also increase congestion at the current bottleneck on northbound I-270 caused by the highway’s progressive narrowing to just two lanes. The toll lanes will add even more vehicles to the narrowing highway heading north. If the proposed project does not simultaneously address transportation up to Frederick, it will create a traffic nightmare. Widening just the southern part of I-270 will make traffic worse on the northern part.

 

Environmental Issues

MDOT must revise the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was published in July 2020, and reopen a public comment period since the project has changed considerably. The new supplemental DEIS will only have a 45-day public comment period; the initial DEIS had a 120-day comment period. However, this provides an opportunity to address remaining environmental issues. This project promotes the opposite of what is necessary to tackle climate change. It will destroy well-established green buffers, which help clean the air and reduce noise, and will create serious stormwater runoff problems. MDOT plans to issue a supplemental DEIS in late summer 2021 and an FEIS by spring 2022.

 

Cost Concerns

Building with a P3 is more expensive in the long run than conventional financing. Toll revenues, which could be going to the State, will go to private investors for 50 years. Infrastructure improvements would produce a greater return on investment for taxpayers if delivered without profits for outside investors. According to In the Public Interest, corporate profits, dividends, and income taxes can add 20 to 30 percent to operation and maintenance costs of privatized infrastructure. Moreover, Maryland taxpayers are likely to be required to subsidize the private contractor for construction funding shortfalls and operational deficits. Rockville will bear huge expenses for upgrading the stormwater management system to handle more runoff.

 

 

More Highway Widening

The new RPA will lead to worsening of already bad bottlenecks and add pressure to complete the Beltway expansion. Future phases are still an option and more contracts may evolve to widen I-495 as originally planned. Any P3 on I-270 will create pressure to execute a P3 on the Beltway. Plans for expanding I-270 north of I-370 are still underway and a DEIS is in progress. There is huge opposition to what’s left of the disastrous project.

This P3 must be stopped in its entirety.

 

 

Must-Read Articles and Opinions

Urgent Action Alert & Updates on Interchanges, Ramps, and Access Points on I-270 Managed Lanes

Urgent Action Alert

The Metropolitan Washington Transportation Planning Board (TPB) is about to vote on its long-range transportation plan. By Tuesday night, May 18, please email TPB Chair Charles Allen at tpbcomment@mwcog.org and urge the TPB to remove the I-270 P3 toll-lane project from the plan. Tell him the project is bad for your community, for Rockville, and for Maryland taxpayers! Include his name and title (Chair Charles Allen) in the subject of your email so that it is directed to him.

P3 Program Update

Jeffrey Folden, Deputy Director of the I-495 & I-270 Public-Private Partnership(P3) Program, within the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) presented a disturbing Program Update to the Montgomery County Civic Federation on April 20, 2021. His presentation can be found at MDOT Briefing on I-270 & I-495 Expansion Plan. Read more about it starting with “Proposed Access Points” below.

Everything about this toll-lane project will have severe impacts on local communities. Traffic will be worse during and after construction, on and off the highway. This will be exacerbated by new interchange ramps and alternative configurations of existing ramps, ramp metering, variable speed limits, and lane adjustments.

MDOT’s Preferred Alternative is Changing
On January 27, 2021, MDOT disclosed that they had selected Alternative 9 as the preferred alternative for widening I-495 and I-270. Alternative 9 was a 2-lane, high occupancy toll (HOT)-managed lanes network that added two HOT- managed lanes in each direction on I-495 and I-270. It converted the existing high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane to an HOT lane and added an additional HOT lane on I-270. As shown below, the managed lanes would be in the center lanes of the highway.

Then on May 12, 2021, MDOT announced that their recommended preferred alternative would now only consist of Phase 1 South -- the American Legion Bridge and I-270 to I-370 -- with no action at this time on I-495 east of the I-270 eastern spur or on I-270 north of I-370. Dontwiden270.org is studying this new plan and will provide more information in the next newsletter.

Alt9.png

Proposed Access Points

There will be considerable changes in traffic throughout the Phase 1 system with increases in traffic volume at access points for managed lanes and significant traffic impacts on local roads. This process will be very expensive. Ramps leading to the current general lanes will need to be moved in order to widen the highway. Controlling access to the toll lanes requires building a virtual duplicate highway, with duplicated shoulder, medians, barriers, and fly-over access ramps. Not only does this greatly increase the cost, but it also eats up space.

In the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released in July 2020, access road information can be found in Section 2.7.1, starting on p. 86 of the electronic file (p. 2-32 of the text pagination). Mr. Folden displayed the graphic below in his April 20th presentation. His discussion of this slide can be heard in his talk during the time points of 28:20 to 30:13.

The local interstate access plan depicted in the graphic was developed by MDOT based on preliminary traffic, operations, and safety analyses.

Per MDOT, the Phase 1 Developer may suggest revisions to those access points for MDOT’s consideration but it will be MDOT’s decision if any revisions to the access points are incorporated. The Phase 1 Developer does not have decision-making authority -- that lies with MDOT -- but if an MDOT decision brings Transurban’s projected profits below the high level specified in the proposal, Transurban can back out of the entire deal.

As depicted in this schema, MDOT’s access plan is for nine interchanges on each side of this section of the I-270 corridor, some for the free lanes and some for the toll lanes. The access points for general purpose lanes would not change, though interchange configurations will be modified and interchange ramps will be adjusted to accommodate the mainline widening of I-270. Three new access points (Gude Drive, Wootton Parkway, and Westlake Terrace) will be added to provide entrance to the toll lanes.

Importantly, there will be no interconnections between managed and free lanes; I-270 would become a “highway within a highway.” This highway design will not allow drivers in the general lanes to transition directly to the toll lanes and vice-versa. To move between toll lanes and general purpose lanes, it will be necessary to exit the highway, meander through local streets, and then re-enter at an access point to the desired lane. Access to the toll lanes has been designed with the specific intent of making it as hard as possible to switch between tolled and untolled lanes. To maximize the operator’s revenue and make the project feasible, it is necessary to force anyone who wants to use the toll lanes for any part of the journey to use them for their entire journey on that highway.

Localaccess.png

Traffic Impacts on Local Roads

Mr. Folden presented the illustration below to describe changes in traffic volume on the local road network. His discussion of this slide is in his talk at time points 30:14 to 32:06. The graphic depicts the changes in traffic volume at the access point intersections along I-270 during the a.m. peak period. The plan to convert Gude Drive and Wootton Parkway to toll lane access roads will considerably increase traffic, noise, and pollution and will impact surrounding neighborhoods.

Localeffects.png

Interstate Access Point Approval

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) oversees the Policy on Access to the Interstate System, which stipulates requirements for proposed changes in access to the Interstate System. All new or modified points of access must be justified, approved by the FHWA, and developed in accordance with federal laws and regulations. Any traffic impacts within the community associated with the increased traffic volumes and new connections generated by the project must be documented.

Mr. Folden stated that Interstate Access Point Approval (IAPA) documentation is underway. It will evaluate operation and safety for each interchange and will analyze impacts of increases in demand on cross streets near interchanges. The documentation is being developed by building upon the traffic modeling and analysis completed as part of the DEIS Appendix C (Traffic Analysis Technical Report). Per MDOT, an updated technical traffic report will be publically available with the FEIS. After public comment of the FEIS and issue of a Record of Decision (ROD) by FHWA, MDOT will seek IAPA from FHWA.

This P3 is a huge unnecessary fiasco that will hurt our communities, state finances, and the environment. It will not reduce regional traffic congestion. As pointed out in a letter from Rockville’s Mayor and Council to Comptroller Franchot, “the traffic impacts caused by construction and congestion will be monumental.”

Must-Read Articles


Keep up to date on the latest news on what’s happening with the I-495/I-270 project. Follow coverage of the highway issue on our website at https://dontwiden270.org/archives