A top official with the Maryland Department of Transportation warned local leaders in the D.C. region on Monday that a recent vote against a controversial highway-widening project puts other road and transit improvements in jeopardy.
In a letter to the head of the National Capital Region’s Transportation Planning Board, Deputy Secretary R. Earl Lewis Jr. said the panel’s June 16 vote to remove the I-495/I-270 project from a federally-required environmental review blows a hole in the state’s long-range planning.
Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s plan to widen portions of the two highways and rebuild the American Legion Bridge through a “public-private partnership” attracted $6 billion in private funding, Lewis told TPB chairman Charles Allen.
Hogan (R) and other top transportation officials have said the “P3” approach is beneficial for Maryland because private firms will not only finance and construct new “express toll lanes” on the two highways and rebuild the bridge at “no net cost to the state,” the companies will also be responsible for maintenance of both the “managed lanes” and the existing lanes, which will remain toll-free.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Bruce DePuyt over at Maryland Matters
