Tag: 495/270

Maryland Gov. Hogan Announces $9 Billion Plan to Widen I-270, I-495 and BW Parkway

Posted on by Tyler Sanders

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday announced $9 billion in projects to add lanes to Interstate 270, the Capital Beltway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to ease congestion in the traffic-choked suburbs of the nation’s capital – a plan that includes toll lanes.

Hogan said the plan to add four lanes to all three roads “will substantially and dramatically improve our state highway system and traffic throughout the region,'” while benefiting millions of Marylanders.

“Daily backups on the Capital Beltway, I-270 and Baltimore-Washington Parkway have made the Baltimore-Washington corridor one of the most congested regions in the nation,” the Republican governor said at a news conference in Gaithersburg. “This problem has been marring the quality of life of Maryland citizens for decades. Today, we are finally going to do something about it.”

The I-495 beltway around Washington will be widened by four lanes for its entire length in the state, and I-270 will be widened from 495 to Frederick.

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth in Washington, said his organization is urging the governor to pause and look at reasonable alternatives, such as more public transportation. He cited concerns about environmental impacts, and he said the new capacity will encourage people who found other ways to commute besides driving to return to the roads and make them congested again.

“If you build it, they will come,” Schwartz said.

The state will be seeking private developers to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the new lanes for those two projects in a public-private partnership, which is also known as a P3.

“These ambitious and unprecedented traffic-relief plans will collectively be the largest P3 highway project in North America,” Hogan said.

Once completed, the plan calls for new express toll lanes, in addition to the existing lanes, on the three roads.

Hogan said has met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to begin the process of transferring the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the Maryland Transportation Authority. The governor said he has directed state officials to finalize details and move forward with transfer negotiations.

The statewide cost of congestion based on auto delay, truck delay and wasted fuel and emissions was estimated at $2 billion in 2015, the governor’s office said. That was an increase of 22 percent from the $1.7 billion estimated cost of congestion in 2013, the governor’s office said. More than 98 percent of the weekday congestion cost was incurred in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao signed a funding agreement with Hogan to build a 16-mile (25-kilometer) light-rail project in the traffic-choked suburbs of Washington. The project, named the Purple Line, is also a public-private partnership. The cost to design, build and operate the line is estimated at about $5.6 billion.

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Hogan Highway Plan Could Turn Region Into Toll Lane Capital

Posted on by Christopher Richter

From the front seat of a car, the future of transportation in the Washington region looks like hundreds of miles of toll lanes.

With Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s new plan to expand the Beltway, I-270 and Baltimore-Washington Parkway each by four lanes, his state is poised to join Virginia in seeking private developers to build HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes to relieve congestion on major highways.

With an estimated cost of $9 billion, the project would be the largest public-private partnership for a highway project in the country, raising an array of questions concerning the state’s transportation priorities, the efficacy of tolling to unclog traffic, the public’s willingness to pay, and – in the case of BW Parkway (MD 295) – whether it is appropriate to transfer federal land to a for-profit toll road endeavor.

Under the HOT lane system, the price of the toll rises and falls along with traffic demand; as more cars flow into the HOT lanes, the electronically-charged, dynamically-priced toll increases in order to maintain speeds of 55 mph. Motorists have the option to stay in the free lanes, but risk getting stuck in traffic if they are unwilling or cannot afford to pay the toll.

The sheer scale of the governor’s proposal, unveiled at a news conference in Gaithersburg on Thursday, makes clear Hogan does not believe piecemeal projects will work. And he is not afraid to promote bold ideas, given his administration’s ongoing study of a high-speed maglev train between Baltimore and Washington — a project that could cost at least $10 billion.

Tolling the entire length of the Capital Beltway in Maryland would require 44 miles of construction, leaving only about 8 miles of I-495 without electronic toll gantries, all in Virginia: from the Wilson Bridge to the I-95 interchange. Virginia, in a public-private partnership with Australia-based Transurban, opened HOT lanes on 14 miles of the Beltway in late 2012, from the American Legion Bridge south to I-95.

If the maximum concept is realized, the 44 miles of the Beltway, 34 miles of I-270, and 32 miles of BW Parkway would give Maryland 110 miles of HOT lanes situated across the river from the 85 miles of express toll lanes Virginia plans to have by 2022, with the opening of the I-66 outside the beltway project.

Such massive investments in highway expansions are leaving transit and smart growth advocates dismayed that regional leaders could be largely giving up on their preferred way to reduce congestion. By changing land use patterns by putting more jobs and housing near high-capacity transit hubs, these advocates argue, commuters would not have to drive in the first place. They say Hogan’s idea will only encourage more drive-alone commuters – the very cause of congestion – even though HOT lanes typically allow carpoolers and buses free access.

In response to these criticisms, Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn argues that new train lines and bus routes are not sufficient to tackle the region’s traffic problems.

“This isn’t a question of transit versus roads. We have to have both,” Rahn said. “The world is awash in capital that is looking for projects exactly like these.”

Do HOT lanes work?

Transportation experts say express toll lanes are effective in providing users predictable travel times and congestion-free travel. It is unclear over the long term to what extent HOT lanes will relieve congestion in the free lanes running parallel to them.

Virginia officials say traffic flow has improved on the regular lanes on I-495 since the HOT lanes there opened five years ago. But if you accept the rule of “induced demand” – built it and more cars will come – then any relief could be temporary.

“Whether it is going to relieve congestion on the un-tolled lanes is a question,” said Rob Puentes, the head of the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington think tank. “It is probably not going to be able to do that because of this rule of induced demand. Folks will still be attracted to the roads and will fill it up with traffic.”

In the HOT lanes, Puentes says, “the tolls themselves will be used to moderate the congestion and keep it relatively congestion-free.”

Dan Malouff, the editor of the pro-transit blog BeyondDC, said Hogan’s plan raises questions that simply cannot be answered at this point.

“Will there be buses on these highways, and if so where will they go and how will they be paid for? Where will the toll profits go? Will they go to the state? Will they go to the private contractor? Will they go to transit? Who knows?” said Malouff, who said Hogan’s desire to obtain the BW Parkway from the U.S. Department of the Interior is potentially troubling.

“There is the question of whether the National Park Service and Trump administration should be giving away national park land to a state or a private contractor in order to run a highway,” he said.

Solution ignores the real problem

Others are not waiting to see the plan unfold before condemning it. Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said that adding lanes to the Beltway will not solve the root cause of traffic congestion: the imbalance of opportunities between the east and west sides of the region.

“Most of the worst traffic is westbound to Montgomery County and Northern Virginia in the morning, and then eastbound on the inner loop back to Prince George’s in the evening. That’s a land use problem, a jobs and housing balance problem, not at its core a transportation problem.”

Schwartz’s group lobbies local and state governments to change zoning laws to allow more housing and jobs to be located near Metrorail and other transit stations.

“Unfortunately the multi-national toll companies have really hijacked the transportation planning process and have undue influence to the exclusion of other alternatives that would better protect neighborhoods and the environment,” he said.

To transit advocates, there is not enough asphalt in the world that can be paved to end traffic jams. To Maryland’s top transportation official, Pete Rahn, the state is capable of fixing highways at the same time as it commits to spending billions on transit in the form of the Purple Line light rail project in the suburbs.

“There have been very few major improvements to highway systems on the Maryland side of the capital region,” Rahn said. “It’s been neglected too long.”

If all goes as planned, Rahn said construction could begin by 2019. That depends on whether the state can reach a deal with a private developer to design, finance, build, operate, and maintain the express toll lanes, and, in the case of MD 295, whether Maryland can obtain the parkway from the federal government.

Photos courtesy of Jose Luis Magana / AP and MDOT. Click here to view the original story.

Hogan plans to widen I-270, I-495 and BW Parkway

Posted on by Christopher Richter

ANNAPOLIS, MD. 

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday announced $9 billion in projects to add lanes to Interstate 270, the Capital Beltway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to ease congestion in the traffic-choked suburbs of the nation’s capital — a plan that includes toll lanes.

Hogan said the plan to add four lanes to all three roads “will substantially and dramatically improve our state highway system and traffic throughout the region,” while benefiting millions of Marylanders.

“Daily backups on the Capital Beltway, I-270 and Baltimore-Washington Parkway have made the Baltimore-Washington corridor one of the most congested regions in the nation,” the Republican governor said at a news conference in Gaithersburg. “This problem has been marring the quality of life of Maryland citizens for decades. Today, we are finally going to do something about it.”

The I-495 beltway around Washington will be widened by four lanes for its entire length in the state, and I-270 will be widened from 495 to Frederick.

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth in Washington, said his organization is urging the governor to pause and look at reasonable alternatives, such as more public transportation. He cited concerns about environmental impacts, and he said the new capacity will encourage people who found other ways to commute besides driving to return to the roads and make them congested again.

“If you build it, they will come,” Schwartz said.

The state will be seeking private developers to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the new lanes for those two projects in a public-private partnership, which is also known as a P3.

“These ambitious and unprecedented traffic-relief plans will collectively be the largest P3 highway project in North America,” Hogan said.

Once completed, the plan calls for new express toll lanes, in addition to the existing lanes, on the three roads.

Hogan said has met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to begin the process of transferring the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the Maryland Transportation Authority. The governor said he has directed state officials to finalize details and move forward with transfer negotiations.

The statewide cost of congestion based on auto delay, truck delay and wasted fuel and emissions was estimated at $2 billion in 2015, the governor’s office said. That was an increase of 22 percent from the $1.7 billion estimated cost of congestion in 2013, the governor’s office said. More than 98 percent of the weekday congestion cost was incurred in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao signed a funding agreement with Hogan to build a 16-mile (25-kilometer) light-rail project in the traffic-choked suburbs of Washington. The project, named the Purple Line, is also a public-private partnership. The cost to design, build and operate the line is estimated at about $5.6 billion.

Virginia Wants To Talk To Maryland About A New Potomac River Bridge — Again

Posted on by Will Reckley

Virginia’s influential Commonwealth Transportation Board wants to open discussions with officials in D.C. and Maryland about improving congested Potomac River crossings, with priority given to expanding the capacity of the American Legion Memorial Bridge and Metro’s Rosslyn tunnel, which is the bottleneck for the Silver, Blue, and Orange lines.

The long-running idea of building a new bridge west of the American Legion — which carries I-495 over the river — also was included in the board’s resolution, although Maryland repeatedly has refused to go along with it. Opponents of adding a bridge west of the American Legion derisively say it would be part of an “outer Beltway.”

“We have had indications from Maryland that they are not opposed to discussion,” said Gary Garczynski, the Northern Virginia representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), which voted Wednesday in favor of opening discussions again.

“There should be dialogue about any one of those crossings or all of them, because in total they would certainly effectuate a much more connected region,” he said.

Studies by the Virginia Department of Transportation have identified the American Legion Bridge as the most important choke point for car commuters. A study of 11 Potomac crossings released in July recommended extending Virginia’s HOT lanes on I-495 across the bridge north to the I-270 spur.

More than 300,000 commuters per day use the bridge, the study said. More than 44,000 people travel through the Rosslyn tunnel on Metrorail into Virginia.

Opponents of an “outer Beltway” say there is relatively light demand for a new bridge upriver.

“There are certain lobbyists who continue to push this. There are certain parts of the business community that keep putting pressure on Gov. McAuliffe and Gov. Hogan. They are totally off base,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a long-time foe of building a new bridge between the American Legion and Point of Rocks bridges over the Potomac.

“There is no funding available for upriver bridges and no demand based on VDOT’s own study. So to us it is a waste of time,” he added.

A spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation said the agency would continue to talk to Virginia officials about its concerns with a new crossing.

Also on Wednesday, the CTB formally approved VDOT’s plans to toll I-66 inside the Beltway staring in 2017, accepting a deal with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission to allow local representatives to decide where to spend toll revenues to improve mobility in the I-66 corridor.

Read at WAMU >>

Is Virginia Building Highways For Single Occupancy Vehicles?

Posted on by Nick Ruiz

When new toll lanes open early next year along I-95 in Northern Virginia, stretching nearly 30 miles between the I-395 interchange and Stafford County, project leaders expect that one of the most successful HOV corridors in the country will continue to attract carpoolers to job centers inside the regional core.

Why Tolls Will Be Waived On One Virginia Highway This Weekend

Posted on by Ted Van Houten

Nearly five months after opening, the operators of the 495 Express Lanes are struggling to attract motorists to their congestion-free toll road in a region mired in some of the worst traffic congestion in the country.

Transurban, the construction conglomerate that put up $1.5 billion to build the 14-mile, EZ Pass-only corridor on the Beltway between the I-95 interchange and Dulles Toll Road, will let motorists use the highway free this weekend in a bid to win more converts.

“It takes a lot of time for drivers in the area to adapt to new driving behaviors. A lot of us are kind of stuck on autopilot on our commutes. That trend might continue for a while, too,” said Transurban spokesman Michael McGurk.

Light use of HOT lanes raises questions

McGurk says some drivers are confused about the new highway’s many entry and exit points. Opening the Express Lanes for free rides this weekend will let motorists familiarize themselves with the road, he said.

After opening in mid-November, the 495 Express Lanes lost money during its first six weeks in business. Operating costs exceeded toll revenues, but Transurban was not expecting to turn an immediate profit. In the long term, however, company officials have conceded they are not guaranteed to make money on their investment. Transurban’s next quarterly report is due at the end of April.

To opponents of the project, five months of relatively light traffic on Virginia’s new $2 billion road is enough to draw judgments. Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has not recovered since the recession knocked millions out of work and more commuters are seeking alternatives to the automobile, according to Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“They miscalculated peoples’ time value of money. They overestimated the potential demand for this road,” said Schwartz, who said the light use of the 495 Express Lanes should serve as a warning.

“We should not have rushed into signing a deal for hot lanes for the 95 corridor, and we certainly shouldn’t rush into any deal on I-66,” he said.

Transurban is counseling patience.

“We’re still in a ramp-up period. You’ve probably heard us say that since the beginning, too, but with a facility like this it’s a minimum six months to two years until the region falls into a regular pattern on how they’re going to use this facility,” McGurk said.

In its first six weeks of operations toll revenues climbed on the 495 Express Lanes from daily averages of $12,000 in the first week to $24,000 in the week prior to Christmas. Traffic in the same period increased from an average of 15,000 daily trips to 24,000, according to company records. Despite the increases, operating expenses still outstripped revenues.

It is possible that traffic is not bad enough outside of the morning and afternoon rush hours to push motorists over to the EZ Pass lanes on 495.

“It may also show that it takes only a minor intervention to remove enough cars from the main lanes to let them flow better,” said Schwartz, who said the 14-mile corridor is simply pushing the bottleneck further up the road.

Even Transurban’s McGurk says many customers who have been surveyed complain that once they reach the Express Lanes’ northern terminus at Rt. 267 (Dulles Toll Road), the same terrible traffic awaits them approaching the American Legion Bridge.

Express Lanes a litmus test for larger issues

The success or failure of the 495 Express Lanes will raise one of the region’s most pressing questions as it looks to a future of job and population growth: how best to move people and goods efficiently. Skeptics of highway expansions, even new facilities that charge tolls as a form of congestion pricing, say expanding transit is cheaper and more effective.

“An approach that gives people more options and reduces driving demand through transit and transit-oriented development may be the better long-term solution. But we’ve never had these DOTs give us a fair comparison between a transit-oriented investment future for our region and one where they create this massive network of HOT lanes,” said Schartz, who said a 2010 study by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments pegged the cost of a tolled network of 1,650-lane miles of regional highways at $50 billion.

Transportation experts say a form of congestion pricing, either tolled lanes or a vehicle miles traveled tax, may be part of a regional solution to congestion. The public, however, needs to be explained why.

“As long as the majority of system remains non-tolled and congested then you are not going to solve the problem,” said Joshua Schank, the president of the Eno Center for Transportation, a D.C.-based think tank.

“Highways in this region are drastically underpriced. People are not paying enough to maintain them and they certainly are not paying enough to pay for the cost of congestion. The American people have been sold a bill of goods because they have been told that roads are free. Roads cost money,” he added.

The 495 Express Lanes are dynamically-priced, meaning the tolls increase with demand for the lanes. The average toll per trip in the highway’s first six weeks of operations was $1.07, according to Transurban records. As motorists enter the lanes they see signs displaying how much it will cost to travel to certain exits, but no travel time estimates are displayed. “It is important to be very clear to drivers about the benefit of taking those new lanes, and I am not sure that has happened so far,” said Schank, who said it is too early to conclude if the Express Lanes are working as designed.

“It’s hard to know if it works by looking whether the lanes are making money. I don’t know if that is the right metric. It’s the right metric for Transurban, but it’s not necessarily the right metric from a public sector perspective,” he said. “The real metric is to what extent does it improve economic development and regional accessibility, and that’s a much harder analysis that takes some real research and time.”

Photo courtesy of Transportation Nation

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