Study on Widening I-270, Beltway Gets Green Light

State Board of Public Works approves $90 million contract, first step in $9 billion plan that includes toll lanes

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The Maryland Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved a $90 million contract that will allow three “traffic relief partners” in the private sector to begin an engineering study of Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to widen Interstates 270 and 495.

Hogan’s $9 billion project, unveiled in September 2017, would add two toll lanes to I-270 from the Beltway to Frederick and lanes to the Maryland portion of the Capital Beltway, with money coming through public-private partnerships and toll collections.

“This contract simply represents the very first step in getting engineers to study the feasibility of how to do it. We’re not even letting them build new roads or widen anything or take anybody’s house or do any of these crazy things that you hear about,” Hogan said a meeting of the three-member board.

Hogan and Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot voted to approve the contract, which includes the companies Louis Berger, Whitman Requardt & Associates and Reynolds, Smith & Hills. The third member of the board, Treasurer Nancy Kopp (D), abstained from voting.

“There are other things you can do other than adding a toll lane that are aimed at reducing an adverse environmental impact,” Kopp said at one point during Wednesday’s meeting.

In an interview Wednesday, Kopp said abstained from voting on the engineering study contract because she remains skeptical about the possible environmental impacts. But she hopes the study will provide more clarity.

“I was pleased that the secretary of transportation agreed to essentially doing the study within the context of the recently signed transportation climate initiative,” she said.

The initiative, signed Tuesday between Maryland, the District of Columbia and nine other states, is a pledge to pursue low-carbon transportation options as a means of creating jobs and improving the environment.

Kopp also said she is uncertain as to whether Hogan’s plan will achieve its intended effect of relieving traffic congestion in the region, recalling that she supported the last expansion of I-270 in the 1990s, to eight lanes, but the congestion relief was only temporary

“It was great for about three years. And then traffic was bad as it ever has been,” she said. “I was very disappointed that it didn’t have the impact that it would.”

The contract is scheduled to begin Jan. 3 and run through Jan. 2, 2024. Kopp said she wants monthly reports from the traffic partners during the course of the study.

Kopp said that as much as traffic relief is needed on I-270, mass transit will also be needed in Montgomery County to improve transportation. Hogan, during the meeting, touted his support for Maryland’s $167 million per year in dedicated funding for the Metro transit system, as well as other transit improvements the state has made. But he said the 270/495 project is still needed.

“All those things [transit improvements] are not going to stop people from sitting in traffic on 270 and 495 if we don’t fix the damn roads,” he said.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has consistently opposed Hogan’s proposal, calling it a “solution from the 20th century” at a legislative breakfast last week in North Bethesda. Elrich has instead, promised to expand bus rapid transit in the county.

“You can’t talk about global warming and then say I’m gonna make my roads bigger and bigger and bigger,” he said.

Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@bethesdamagazine.com