|   Weather   |   Traffic   |   Contact Us   |   Mobile
Follow us:



 
ADVANCED
SEARCH>>










ADVERTISEMENTS
RECENTLY POSTED JOBS
See all>




TOP JOBS
See all>
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Delicious
Share
E-mail this article
E-mail
Leave a Comment
Comment
Print this Article
Print
advertisement

Since at least 1987, when Jay Moyer was on the Oakland town council in Garrett County, the relocation of U.S. 219 to bypass the town was listed as the county’s top priority in the annual letter to the state Department of Transportation.

Each year the county put it on the wish list of transportation projects to the state to consider funding, and each year the request itself was bypassed by the state for other projects on other counties’ wish lists.

Two years ago, Moyer, now the county’s general roads superintendent, asked Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) about the project.

“He told me the state didn’t have the money for it,” Moyer said. “He told me that right to my face. He pulled his pockets right out of his pants and said, ‘Does it look like I have the money for it?’”

Across the state, county governments and Baltimore city send an annual list of projects for new roads, bridges and public transportation systems. To build everything currently on the counties’ wish lists would cost a about $12 billion.

While funding for all of the counties’ top priorities is not available, state legislators are debating O’Malley’s proposal for a higher gasoline tax to pay for more transportation projects. It comes at a time when, just this week, President Barack Obama announced a six-year, $476 billion plan for transportation infrastructure improvement.

O’Malley introduced a bill Tuesday to tack on a 6 percent sales tax, phased in across three years, to the price of gas to raise an additional $615 million per year to address Maryland’s instrastructure needs.

The tax increase eventually would add an estimated 18 cents per gallon to the current state tax of 23.5 cents per gallon. Last year, a blue ribbon commission appointed by O’Malley had recommended a 15 cent-per-gallon tax hike on top of other vehicle fees.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce is “delighted the governor is providing leadership” on the need for infrastructure improvements, but has not taken a position on the sales tax proposal, said Kathleen T. Snyder, president and CEO of the organization.

Businesses support building more roads and bridges and transportation infrastructure because it hurts them when workers are stuck in traffic and delivery trucks are delayed, Snyder said.

“You never want your transportation infrastructure to crumble,” Snyder said.

However, support from the business community isn’t universal. Large truckers, in particular, are concerned about the added cost of doing business that comes with a gas tax increase.

Detailing road projects

Each county and Baltimore city send an annual letter with a top priority project to the state Department of Transportation for review. It includes details of what the project would accomplish and its estimated cost.

The top priorities from the counties and Baltimore are reviewed by the governor and sent to the General Assembly for budget approval to get on the state transportation department’s Consolidated Transportation Program.

Projects range from Montgomery County’s Corridor Cities Transitway — with a price tag of $460 million to $1 billion — which would involve the use of light rail or commuter bus to link Clarksburg to the Shady Grove Metro station, to the $1.9 billion Purple Line to connect public transit in New Carrollton in Prince George’s County to Bethesda in Montgomery County.

Carroll County’s top priority is an expansion of Md. 32 from the Howard County line north to Md. 26.

“Expanding that roadway would link a significant employment area to Interstate 70 in Howard County,” said Daphne Daly, chief of the Bureau of Planning with the Carroll County Department of Land Use Planning and Development.

The project would cost an estimated $120.5 million to increase the two lanes to four, but the expansion is needed because the current road use of 26,500 vehicles daily is projected to grow to 39,000 by 2030, she said.

A bypass around Hampstead was on the county’s top priority wish list for years before it eventually got funded, Daly said.

Counties also often list other projects as their lesser priorities for the state to consider.

After O’Malley told Garrett County officials he would not approve the 2-mile-long, $42 million bypass around Oakland, the county moved the second item on its list to its top priority, Moyer said.

That road, a connector to U.S. 219 in northern Garrett County, is not likely to be built anytime soon either, because it would require Pennsylvania authorities to get on board with the project, he said.

The Oakland bypass still is needed, although it is not the top priority this year, Moyer said.

“Oakland now experiences rush hours, if you can believe that,” Moyer said. “It has become detrimental to businesses because their location on that corridor makes it hard for people to stop at their businesses.”

The project almost received funding once, Moyer said.

“At one point it almost made it to the top [of the state funding approval list], and it was knocked off because Governor [William Donald] Schaefer took money for it and put in a new entrance at Rocky Gap State Park,” Moyer said.

There were hopes the bypass would gain approval from then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R),who was more friendly to heavily Republican Western Maryland, but that didn’t happen, Moyer said.

“These projects can have a very long history of being a priority,” said Jim Gugel, planning manager for the Frederick County Department of Transportation’s Community Development Division.

The U.S. 15 ramp at Monocacy Boulevard, which would cost about $80 million, is the county’s top priority.

Each county has significant needs, and the state has to weigh them with the amount of money available, Gugel said.

“It’s as good a process as any for the state to gather,” he said.

Charles County’s top priority is the Southern Maryland Light Rail Project that would use public transit along the U.S. 301 corridor, said Crystal Hunt, the Charles County public information director.

“We have one of the fastest-growing commuter buses in the state with 6,000 riders per day,” Hunt said. “We need an accessible system. The commissioners have done research on it, and the light rail is the top priority.”

The commuter buses carry passengers to the Branch Avenue Metro Station in Prince George’s County so they can travel to work in Washington, D.C.

“But people need more flexible options, and light rail will provide that,” she said.

cford@gazette.net