Posted on 04/26/2019 12:58:43 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
MARYLANDERS STUNNED by rush-hour traffic on the Capital Beltway, brace yourselves: Your commute is on track to get much, much worse. Roughly 30,000 more vehicles will be using Maryland’s portion of the highway each day by 2040, on top of the current 253,000, meaning cars and trucks will creep along at an average speed of 14 mph between Bethesda and College Park — a 10-mile segment that will take 43 minutes.
That’s part of the impetus for a bold plan Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has advanced that would add up to four toll lanes to the Beltway and Interstate 270. (Existing lanes would remain free.) The cost, upward of $9 billion, would be borne by a private firm, selected by the state, which would design, build, operate and maintain the toll lanes, in return for a chunk of the revenue. Depending on its design and scope, the project, which would set variable tolls on the new lanes depending on congestion, would keep traffic flowing at 45 mph in the regular lanes and 60 mph in the toll lanes.
Yes, the new lanes would have to be wedged into the Beltway’s narrow corridor in Maryland, meaning existing homes and businesses would be affected. Along the 20-mile span between the George Washington Parkway, on Virginia’s side of the Potomac, and College Park, as many as 34 homes and four businesses could fall victim to the construction, and hundreds more homes could lose all or parts of their backyards, temporarily during construction or permanently to sound barriers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’m glad I’m retiring in 2022. 50 years of DC, MD traffic has been quite enough, thank you. Is it 2022 yet?
Deport the illegals and visa overstays and we won’t have these traffic problems.
Reconnecting the roads that were broken up by the original highways via overpasses and underpasses, so that local travelers can use the surface roads instead of the long, winding parking lot would help, too.
The south end of the Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore, for example, has overpasses and underpasses out the a**. I’m sure Baltimoreans were grateful for that accommodation.
Cintra doesn’t do all of the PPPs, but given their dismal performance with the Indiana Toll Road, among other projects, I am leery of Virginia allowing them to build the I-66 toll lanes.
On the other hand, Transurban’s not doing too hot, either. Their I-495 express lane project is losing money, and, IIRC, they showed the I-95 express lanes as breaking even with an accounting trick.
Ditto, ditto, ditto. I expect this would be a far more cost effective use of the money, as compared to widening the interstates.
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