Posted on 11/15/2019 12:47:04 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Maryland and Virginia will partner to rebuild and widen the American Legion Bridge in a billion-dollar project to relieve congestion at the Washington region’s worst traffic bottleneck, the states’ governors announced Tuesday.
In an unusual example of interstate cooperation, Virginia has agreed to help pay for the project even though most of the bridge — like the Potomac River flowing beneath it — belongs to Maryland.
The plan marks a breakthrough in a years-long impasse over widening the bridge on the northwestern stretch of the Capital Beltway. In the past, Maryland has said it didn’t have enough money for the undertaking, and Virginia said the bridge was its neighbor’s responsibility.
The new bridge will have four express toll lanes, in addition to eight free lanes as on the current span. The tolls will fluctuate based on congestion, rising to keep traffic flowing freely.
Construction is expected to begin in 2022 and to be completed and open to travelers in five or six years, officials said. They said it was too early to say how traffic will be affected while construction is underway, but significant disruptions are likely.
Both states said the undertaking will be built through public-private partnerships, in which the government teams up with private companies to finance, construct and operate big infrastructure projects. Typically, the private consortium pays some of the upfront costs and shares the financial risk with the government in exchange for future toll revenue. In this case, both states said, toll payers, rather than taxpayers, will foot the entire bill.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) made the announcement in a surprise joint appearance at a regional transportation forum in the District.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
PING.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
It’s a rare example of interstate cooperation???
How many places in America, are there bridges which cross from one state to another? Too numerous to count.
But in those places, haven’t the states involved worked out issues of repair and maintenance for such bridges?
It’s hard to believe cooperation with interstate bridges is so rare.
I stand corrected if it turns out states repeatedly battle over who pays how much for which repairs on such bridges.
Another toll-racket begins.
So Virginia can turn blue even faster.
The new I-70 bridge connecting East St. Louis, IL to St. Louis, MO had such a battle. It was originally going to be a 6 to 8 lane toll bridge, but Illinois kept bitching about how East St. Louis commuters would have to pay tolls to work in the more prosperous St. Louis, so an agreement was eventually reached to build a free four-lane bridge.
I have crossed that bridge numerous times over the past 30 years. The major problem isn’t the bridge as much as the approach from Tyson’s corner to the bridge. That, and the drivers whose previous driving experience amounts to driving ox carts through rice paddies...
One of the two times in my life that I truly thought I was going to die was on the approach to that bridge from Tyson’s Corner. I came up over a rise and had to slam on my brakes because it was a parking lot in front of me that could not be seen from “upstream.”
I quickly looked in my rear view mirror and saw a Mac truck barreling down on me with no place to go. I blurted out “Jesus, save me!”, which was very uncharacteristic. I don’t know what happened to the truck, but somehow he avoided me and everyone else.
I was newly married at the time and was commuting to Tyson’s Corner from northeast Baltimore. We were expecting our first kid. I took it as a sign that God didn’t want me to make that commute anymore, so I found a job in Baltimore and have had reasonable commutes since. That was over 30 years ago. One of the best decisions I ever made to make sure my commutes from then on were short and safe.
Sounds like the makings of a new Allstate Mayhem commercial :-)
LOL!
When I was complaining about DC drivers to a woman who worked for the State Dept, she said “What do you expect from someone who has never driven on a paved road?”
Move half of the agency out of DC to other parts of the US...Problem solved!
For a billion dollars, they'd dang well better include a wide sidewalk/bike lane as well, similar to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The American Legion Bridge sails directly over the C&O Canal and towpath and the Capital Crescent trail. It's just plug ugly stupid not to connect. On the Virginia side it should connect to bike friendly streets in McLean with signage to the several trails in that area. A river crossing is too expensive to waste. Get full value. Add a sidewalk/bike lane.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why 495 in that area curve so much.
I guess the wealthy members of the swamp won’t ever allow a bridge farther up the Patomac. All the traffic from Gaithersburg and north going to Dulles, etc. would no longer have to get on the beltway at all.
Got stuck in Wilson Bridge traffic almost 30 years ago on our way to Dulles to catch a flight to Germany to have my 4 m.o. son Baptized by his Great-Grandfather.
When we got to Dulles late they said they didn’t have any more seats in economy, so they would seat us in business.
I think fondly of that bridge.
Easy.
1. Terrain - I-495 is traversing a major transition in geography, from Piedmont to Coastal Plain aka the "Fall Line".
2. Pre Existing Federal Properties, Parks and Monuments. These are why I-95 doesn't go all the way through the city.
Bike Lanes! Seriously? It’s an Interstate Highway. It is illegal to ride a bike or anything else that can’t travel at least 45mph.
They can take White’s Ferry!
Poolesville has been fighting a 2nd bridge at Whites tooth and nail. They seem to have some kind of federally protected land that lets them stop it.
The Potomac?
There isn’t another crossing because of the Enviro Terrorists.
A southern/eastern Bypass would be much more beneficial BTW, direct from Richmond to White Marsh north of Baltimore.
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