As Endgame Nears, Toll Lane Scheme is Still Vulnerable

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.

MDOT Cut Too Many Corners; Now It’s Backed Into One!

MDOT planned an action-packed toll-lane summer to clinch the Governor’s deal. June: Dump 26,000+ pages of rushed/incomplete/illogical/opaque documentation on the public. July: Declare the public review period over. August: Get a hearty thumbs-up from the federal government and start writing construction contracts for approval before Hogan leaves office.

 

It’s not working out so well:

  • Opposition to the toll-lane scheme is broader, fiercer, and more knowledgeable than MDOT and Governor Hogan ever expected (see outstanding examples below).

  • As of this writing, the Federal Highway Administration is continuing its due diligence, reviewing the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement to ensure it meets federal requirements. (It doesn’t – see the latest evidence below.)

  • MDOT’s private partner, toll-lane giant Transurban, STILL doesn’t have a construction contractor despite shortlisting three bidders a year ago. Something is not right.

 

And time is running out. Governor Hogan leaves office in the beginning of January. Candidates Wes Moore, Brooke Lierman, and others at all levels of government do not want to claim this harmful project as their own.

 

Back in 2018, grassroots activists and elected officials planted the seeds for evidence-based opposition to the toll-lane scheme. The evidence keeps piling up and the opposition keeps growing. Thank you for your part in all of it.

ACTION ITEM

 

Until the day the toll-lane project is withdrawn, we need to keep broadcasting what’s at stake. Your person-to-person and social media sharing are a key part of the grassroots effort. You’ll find the latest revelations in the Sierra Club’s scathing analysis of MDOT’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The analysis helps lay the foundation for legal action.

 

Choose topics that grab you from the Table of Contents  (pp. v-vi), then share what you learn as widely as you can. Shockers include:

  • MDOT’s latest efforts to nullify the public voice (text pages 3-11).

  • Evidence of manipulation of traffic models. Confirmation of increased travel times and new/worsening bottlenecks (pages 11-20).

  • New info on serious public health risks and MDOT’s failure to disclose them (pages 20-25). 

 

Our determined coalition never lets up

 

Just last month, hundreds of you urged USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg to require a public comment period for the FEIS. Requesting the same thing at approximately the same time were the Montgomery County Delegation to Annapolis; Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich`; 62 advocacy groups, activist organizations, and Maryland mayors in a joint letter; and from Rockville, Mayor Bridget Newton and Councilmembers Monique Ashton, Beryl Feinberg, David Myles, and Mark Pierzchala.

 

The Sierra Club’s extensive, expert analysis of the 26,000+ page FEIS was put together in under a month by a dedicated, multidisciplinary team of legal and technical subject matter experts, professional and volunteer advocacy leaders, citizen activists, and more.

 

The Chair of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Casey Anderson, sent a letter last week asking MDOT and the FHWA for more time to review the potential environmental impacts of the project.

 

Our partner and chair of the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition, Ben Ross, called out the possibility of fraud in MDOT’s traffic modeling: Toll Lanes Critic Accuses MDOT of “Scientific Fraud” in Key Report.

Our partner Gary Hodge, vice chair of the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition, exposed the dangers of turning over public infrastructure to a private entity that looks only to its own gain.

 

 

Speedy when they want to be, but slooow in getting back to us

 

MDOT took 585 days (p. 8) to respond to the public officials, agencies, and members of the public (you!) who collectively submitted 2,909 comments about the Draft EIS. They took 199 days to respond to the 2,138 public comments about the Supplemental DEIS. Absurd!

 

If you jump through enough hoops, you can find your own comment and MDOT’s response (often just a reference to another section) in the 13 files of Appendix T of the FEIS. Start at the index (p. 2). Good luck.

 

 

Not the Washington Post again!

 

In its 19th hand-wringing editorial in support of Maryland toll lanes, the Post went after the Federal Highway Administration for doing its job and taking time to review the FEIS. The Post, like Governor Hogan, wants ASAP approval of the toll-lane project for reasons that seem to have nothing to do with real congestion relief or effective transportation planning. If those were the Post’s goals, the editorials would be quite different. More like this new one in the Baltimore Sun: “Controversial Maryland toll lane project best kept on the shelf until 2023”.

ASAP Action Alert: Tell Pete Buttigieg We Need 2 More Months

Quick grassroots action can make a huge difference. Our coalition is urging US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to push back against MDOT’s mad rush to finalize the toll-lane scheme.

 

MDOT, on June 17, issued the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS): 26,500 pages, much of it new. MDOT gave the public only 30 days to review all it. Impossible!

 

Grassroots groups and elected officials are requesting a 60-day extension and formal comment period. But federal agencies with the power to approve the project need to hear from large numbers of activists like you. ASAP.

 

Please use this easy correspondence tool to send a quick message requesting an extension and public comment period. Use the text provided and/or add your own words.

 

For more inspiration, see this powerful request for an extension sent to federal officials on July 8 by theMontgomery County Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly.

 

Click here to create and send your message today.

 

Thank you!

Federal Highway Administration Pub. HOP-14-022, Sec 1.1