When Maryland governor Larry Hogan canceled Baltimore’s Red Line and cut state funding from the Purple Line, he shifted over a billion dollars from transit to road construction. Here are the road projects he plans to build with that money.

Image from Maryland.

On the map, blue lines and dots illustrate major highway projects. Red lines are smaller road projects, and green dots are bridge projects.

There are three major highway projects in the Washington region, on I-270, the Beltway, and Route 1. Most of the money is going to projects in other parts of the state.

I-270 in Montgomery

Montgomery County will get one big project: $100 million for “innovative congestion reduction” on I-270, between the Beltway and I-370.

Image from Maryland.

That won’t be a widening. It will be operational tweaks to squeeze more efficiency out of the pavement that’s already there. MDOT will introduce things like ramp meters, bus-on-shoulder, and signals that let motorists drive on the shoulder at peak times.

Officials haven’t determined the exact location or mix of projects yet, but all three of those strategies have helped Virginia squeeze more capacity out of I-66.

Two in Prince George’s

Prince George’s will get two big projects: $185 million to expand the Beltway interchange at Greenbelt Metro station, and $30 million to rebuild US-1 through downtown College Park.

Greenbelt interchange (left) and US-1 in College Park (right). Images from Maryland.

The Greenbelt project will add new highway ramps, so drivers coming from northbound I-495 will be able to get to the Metro station, and so drivers leaving Metro will be able to reach southbound I-495. Those movements aren’t possible today.

The College Park project will make US-1 a four-lane highway with a raised median, and add better bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. This is the same project GGW has advocated for over the past year, although it’s not clear from Hogan’s announcement what the final design will look like.

Most of the money goes elsewhere

Those three projects will most directly affect Washington-area drivers. Here are the biggest new projects elsewhere in the state:

• $160 million to widen MD-404 in Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Caroline Counties
• $110 million to reconstruct the I-270/MD-85 interchange in Frederick
• $90 million to realign US-219 and build a new interchange with I-68 in Garrett County
• $75 million to reconstruct the Baltimore-Washington Parkway/MD-175 interchange in Anne Arundel County
• $65 million to widen US-113 in Worcester County
• $25 million to widen MD-2/MD-4 in Calvert County

Here’s the complete list of major road projects statewide. In addition to new projects, the list also includes $645 million in “preserved” funding for projects for which MDOT had already budgeted.

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July 7th, 2015 | Permalink
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