Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is responding to ethics concerns raised over a proposed consulting contract that is tied to a huge transportation project.The $68.5 million contract, related to Hogan’s $7.6 billion plan to widen parts of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270, was pulled from consideration Wednesday by the Maryland Board of Public Works, which approves state contracts.“We held up the approval just to make sure that there isn’t any conflict,” Hogan told WTOP in an interview Friday. “I expressed some of the same concerns that other people have and that’s why the board of public works...

WASHINGTON — A group of powerful business leaders is calling for more toll lanes on highways from Richmond, Virginia, to Baltimore.The first focus of the Greater Washington Partnership’s toll lane push is expected to be on Maryland’s plans for toll lanes around the Capital Beltway and up part of Interstate 270, with lobbying from the CEOs of some of the largest companies in Maryland, Virginia and the District to get the rules in Maryland to match those on Virginia’s Interstate 495 Express Lanes.Virginia’s lanes are free with a minimum of three people in the car and an E-ZPass Flex, while...

Use of the E-ZPass electronic payment system has grown exponentially across the Washington region in recent years as the network of toll lanes has expanded in the Interstate 95 corridor with new facilities from Stafford County to just north of Baltimore. Both Maryland and Virginia are actively promoting E-ZPass, hoping to reduce cash payment at toll plazas — where the option exists — and to encourage the seamless use of all-electronic toll facilities such as the 495 Express Lanes and 66 Express Lanes in Virginia and the Intercounty Connector in Maryland. In that spirit, Maryland announced last week that it...

Traffic backs up virtually every day on Interstate 95 southbound where it crosses the Occoquan River entering Prince William County because five lanes are decreased to three. Prince William Supervisor Ruth Anderson, R-Occoquan, has proposed a solution: Build a reinforced shoulder lane along I-95 south from the Route 123 interchange at Occoquan to the Prince William Parkway. This will keep four lanes available. “Not only will this improve commute time, it will prevent frustration with having one of the worst bottlenecks in the nation,” Anderson said. The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board is conducting an air quality analysis to...

Getting drivers more quickly from Interstate 95 to the Sawgrass Expressway will involve putting them on express lanes that dip below local roads for one mile, according to plans that were unveiled Tuesday. An estimated 45,000 vehicles now travel daily along the 2 1/2-mile stretch of Southwest 10th Street between the Sawgrass Expressway and I-95 in Deerfield Beach — which is more than it was designed for. Almost half of those vehicles would opt for these express lanes, rather than go through the current eight traffic lights along Southwest 10th Street, according to state transportation planners’ projections. By 2029, the...

The political tide has turned against toll roads in Texas, imperiling a Tomball interchange project and hamstringing frustrated local officials, while setting an ominous tone for projects to come. For years, state officials relied on tolls to tackle some of TexasÂ’ biggest traffic messes as a way to build without adding taxes. Since 2016, however, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have taken hard-line stances against the mixing of Texas Department of Transportation money and toll revenues. Most Popular More men accuse former Texas judge, Baptist leader of sexual misconduct Breaking down 2018 Texas A&M football: Quarterback With...

Maryland is moving forward on its plan to add four toll lanes to both Interstate 270 and the Capital Beltway. On Thursday, the state’s transportation department announced it received 27 responses to its request for initial information from companies interested in financing, building and operating the estimated $7.6 billion project. “This is a significant and very positive step in the process,” State Highway Administrator Greg Slater said in a statement. “This level of interest indicates that industry is meeting our demand … for transformative and innovative ideas to address the congestion issue in Maryland ….” The state received responses from...

WASHINGTON — The two-year-old high-tech system that allows the Interstate 66 “red X” lanes to be opened outside of rush hour will be taken down within the next 12 months, WTOP has learned.The active traffic management system, which includes digital signs over each lane on a stretch of about 12 miles of I-66 just outside the Capital Beltway, cost $39 million. Work began in 2013; the system was first activated in September 2015.Construction on two HOV or toll lanes in each direction between the Beltway and Gainesville is set to ramp up this spring, and that will disrupt the system....

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - The largest road construction project in state history is nearing completion, and relief for commuters is almost here. Georgia's Department of Transportation program manager for the project told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach even after delays for weather and after the I-85 collapse, the new 75 express lanes should open by the end of summer. “It’s the longest land bridge in the state of Georgia," program manager for the project, Stephen Lively said. Northern sections above the 75-575 split and through Marietta are mostly complete, including one 6,000-foot raised section. Lively said the goal is to have...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced a deal Wednesday that will add 10 more miles of express lanes to the Interstate 95 corridor, expanding the system of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes to Fredericksburg by 2022. As part of the agreement, the private company building the lanes will give the state $277 million upfront to cover costs of a bridge over the Rappahannock River and other improvements along the corridor, Virginia transportation officials said. The deal essentially moves forward a 10-mile extension from Garrisonville Road (Route 610) in Stafford County to Route 17 in the Fredericksburg area. It also builds on...

WASHINGTON — Expanding and extending Beltway toll lanes over the Potomac River sooner, delays and changes to D.C. Streetcar plans, and changes to widening plans for a number of roads across the region. Those are some of the transportation projects that moved forward to be part of long-range plans that can actually be constructed in coming years. Other projects accepted Wednesday as having the funding to move forward include an additional lane by 2025 on Interstate 95 south just across the Occoquan River to exit 160, and a plan to widen Route 15 from Battlefield Parkway to Montresor Road near...

WASHINGTON — With construction on new toll lanes ramping up this year on Interstate 66 between Gainesville and the Beltway, Virginia’s Commonwealth Transportation Board is due to approve a number of projects next week that will be paid for by the toll lane operators. After a public hearing Thursday, the board is due to vote Jan. 10 on how to spend $496 million of a $579 million payment that Express Mobility Partners gave the state as part of the construction agreement. An additional $79 million is due to go toward oversight of the project, including public outreach, and there is...

Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn dangled a $9 billion carrot Wednesday in front of more than 100 companies potentially interested in adding express toll lanes to the Capital Beltway, Interstate 270 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. “It’s amazing,” Rahn quipped to more than 320 highway engineers, designers and builders in a ballroom at the BWI Airport Marriott in Linthicum. “You can get a lot of attention when you put a nine in front of a ‘B.’” Officially, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s industry forum was intended to provide companies more details about the plan to add four toll lanes each...

Texas lawmakers have gone from championing to criticizing toll roads, a shift that some Houston-area leaders worry has gone too far and could limit coming projects. "Without toll roads and that funding, I don't know what we are going to do," said Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal, citing the need for new roadways in rapidly growing parts of the Houston area. The concern, voiced at a Dec. 15 meeting of the Houston-Galveston Area Council's Transportation Policy Council - the region's transportation planning group - was shared in response to decisions by the Texas Transportation Commission. A day earlier, the commission...

BALTIMORE — In September, Governor Larry Hogan announced a massive plan to ease congestion on the D.C. Beltway. Tuesday, it was Baltimore's turn. Hogan and his transportation team unveiled a multipronged approach that could cut commute times for millions of Marylanders. Maryland has the second longest commuting times in the nation. Six of the 15 most congested spots in our state are on the Baltimore Beltway. Hogan announced a $461 million traffic-relief plan for Interstates 695 and 95 north. The plan "will benefit the lives of millions of drivers throughout the Baltimore region," Hogan said. There are four components to...

T he expansion of Virginia’s extensive system of high­-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes is shifting to Interstate 395. Construction is set to take off before the end of the year along an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 395, where today’s high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are being converted into toll lanes. The $480 million project will deliver the next major milestone in the state’s vision to create a network of more than 90 miles of HOT lanes in Northern Virginia by 2022. About 45 miles of express lanes have opened on Interstates 495 and 95 within the past five years, and the state...

The congestion and construction on Interstate 95 are frustrating enough, but navigating the dramatically uneven lanes that make your car shimmy, shake and swerve into neighboring lanes is downright dangerous. Yet as the Sun Sentinel’s Wayne Roustan reported Sunday, the Florida Department of Transportation says we’re going to have to endure this nightmare through parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties until 2024. Come on, FDOT. You’re killing us. Well, we can’t really say you’re killing us because, believe it or not, state transportation officials can’t tell us how many accidents have occurred during the construction of the I-95 express...

Florida lawmakers demonstrated wisdom, foresight and fiscal responsibility in 2014 when they combined county expressway authorities in Central Florida into a single, regional agency. Roads don’t stop at county lines, and it’s inefficient and expensive to maintain multiple bureaucracies to control separate stretches of pavement. It’s also a problem when neighboring toll-road agencies have conflicting policies and plans for the future. Yet the rationale behind that 2014 law hasn’t been completely realized yet. It’s time for lawmakers to step in again. Dueling road agencies The Central Florida Expressway Authority now owns and operates 118 miles of toll roads in Metro...

People forgot the asterisk. Or maybe they never noticed it in the first place. The consequences of that oversight took full form about a week ago, and the result is that the prospects for several major highway projects in Central Texas and the state’s other urban centers are now uncertain. Back during the 2013 legislative session, when Texas Department of Transportation officials and their lawmaker allies began pushing for more money through a constitutional amendment, they said that TxDOT needed an extra $5 billion a year to fight traffic congestion. Just give us that much money and all will be...

Several key Central Texas highway projects — including expansions of U.S. 183 in North Austin, U.S. 290 in Southwest Austin and Interstate 35 through the heart of the area — are once again in limbo after Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last week staked out firm anti-toll positions. “Right now there’s a billion dollars worth of projects on hold, between 183 and Oak Hill,” said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority. The I-35 project, estimated to cost $8 billion to add toll lanes and other improvements from Round Rock to Buda, was...