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MDOT mulls private transit partnerships

Businesses would help build, operate and finance projects in Montgomery County, but state would maintain ownership

Friday, Oct. 6, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette ‘‘We cannot be wedded to traditional finance thinking or it takes 50 years to build, and that is not acceptable to Governor Ehrlich,” Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said of proposed public-private partnerships to build three key transit projects in Montgomery County. Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette Rick Kiegel, a project manager for the Maryland Transit Authority, talks to reporters Wednesday about plans for the Corridor Cities Transitway.

Projects would include some of the largest and most politically charged in the Washington suburbs, where relieving traffic congestion has long been a major issue.

‘‘Congestion along these corridors robs thousands of commuters of valuable time each day,” Ehrlich (R) said in a statement. ‘‘Involving the private sector could help us deliver the relief in years, rather than decades.”

Among those projects, officials said, would be the Intercounty Connector, the controversial $2.4 billion highway between Gaithersburg and Laurel. Another would be a long-planned Corridor Cities Transitway — possibly light rail, possibly a bus line — linking Rockville with Clarksburg and relieving congestion on I-270.

A third project would widen the Capital Beltway and parts of I-270 for express toll lanes for commuters willing to pay the charge — a concept often criticized as so-called Lexus lanes.

On Oct. 11, the state will accept ‘‘expressions of interest” from individuals and businesses that may want to partner with the state on building, operating and⁄or financing the projects. The state does not intend to sell any of the projects to the private sector, according to Ehrlich’s statement.

‘‘If we are creating value for real estate developers, those real estate developers should follow Smart Growth principles. Those developers should help the public in funding these projects and paying for these projects....,” said Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan. ‘‘No one should reap the windfall.”

If the idea of private funding for state transportation projects meets with enough enthusiasm, the Department of Transportation would begin soliciting companies to participate in the projects.

Interested? Businesses that want to respond to the state’s proposed public-private partnerships should go to www.i-270corridorp3.com beginning Oct. 11.

‘‘We’re looking for ideas from the private sector to move these forward,” said Joe Waggener, deputy executive secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority. Public-private partnerships would help the state move ‘‘faster than we can with our traditional process,” he said.

Waggener said he expects teams made up of finance companies, design firms, contractors and maintenance⁄operations firms to come forward. The state would use the information to ‘‘build a consensus before we actually put information out there on the street,” he said. ‘‘It’s not typically our way of doing business.”

Wednesday’s announcement about the possibility of private funding came during a ‘‘rolling” news conference aboard a bus traveling along parts of I-270 where some of the construction would take place.

The bus traveled sections of the 13.5-mile Corridor Cities Transitway, which runs from the Shady Grove Metro station in Rockville through Gaithersburg and Germantown, ending just south of Clarksburg.

Plans for building alternative transportation options have been in the Montgomery County Master Plans since the 1970s, but a lack of consensus and funding have slowed progress.

Officials now must decide whether the transitway will be a light-rail system or a bus system. The option of a ‘‘premium” bus service that would use the HOV lanes or Express Toll Lanes is also under discussion.

As proposed, the transitway would include 13 stations and direct transfers to the MARC Brunswick line and the Metrorail Red Line. The project is expected to cost between $539 million and $865 million.

Widening portions of I-270 and the Capital Beltway to accommodate Express Toll Lanes is projected at $2 billion. Toll lanes would control congestion by charging fees based on time of day and the flow of traffic, transportation officials said.

Gazette Staff Writer Melissa Chadwick contributed to this report.