Even as Bethesda and other parts of Montgomery County endure crippling traffic jams, Montgomery County politicians keep assuring us that there is no federal money available to build badly-needed roads and bridges.
What they don't tell you is, they haven't even applied for any!
In order to be eligible for federal funds, a transportation project must first be placed into a master plan. But our politicians have done just the opposite, deleting master plan highways like the Rockville Freeway and Outer Beltway from the books in methodical fashion.
If you wondered why our stimulus money ended up going to paving and sidewalks - while Virginia was getting money to finish its Rockville Freeway counterpart, the Fairfax County Parkway (the 2 roads were meant to connect, via a new Potomac River bridge by Riverbend Park) - it was because we didn't have any shovel-ready road projects in the pipeline. Result: we lost out on tens of millions of dollars.
What happens to federal money states and counties can't spend, because their leaders subscribe to anti-car ideology? It gets taken back by Uncle Sam, and distributed to states with common sense.
Like Virginia.
I believe they got $67+ million for the Fairfax County Parkway. But they're not done yet!
The Federal Highway Administration has just awarded an additional $52 million to Virginia, funds that - you guessed it - were passed up by states that are ideologically-opposed to building roads. Even if the Feds are picking up a large portion of the tab.
$52 million!
Why is Virginia getting $52M extra?
As the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, Uncle Sam is giving a treasure chest of $1.4 billion "to states, like Virginia, that have eligible projects ready to go."
Why didn't we have the Rockville Freeway, Outer Beltway and Potomac River bridge "ready to go?"
Why didn't the state have the extension of I-70 to I-170 in west Baltimore "ready to go," to handle the explosion of truck traffic westbound from the port [and earn truck toll revenue - duh!], when the new Panama Canal opens in 2014?
Ask your elected officials.
2 comments:
These virginia projects are funded because every road mile in Virginia, not in an independent city is a VDOT owned road. A critical difference from MD, that only owns and maintains the major (numbered) routes. Most all of these new parkways you describe are primary enough that they'd be a State route, not a County route, so it's not Montgomery County that ever should/would/could apply, the State of MD has to apply. All MoCo could do is give the state money to pursue these highways.
The state has gotten stimulus money and applied it to about a dozen bridge/interchange replacement projects on both the DC and Baltimore Beltways, equally as expensive if not more so than the projects VA used. I'd much rather be in a locality where the old/existing bridges were maintained, than a locality where there are plenty of new wide roads and crumbling old bridges/roads.
I enjoy your blog for all of the insider information about the businesses coming and going from Bethesda, but articles like this really make me question why you live here when you're clearly unhappy and think the arm pit that is NOVA is so much better and more sustainable at things.
Glad to have you as a reader. I am very happy to live in my hometown of Bethesda. I don't believe that discussing effective solutions for the serious problems we have in MoCo means a person is "clearly unhappy."
There is a difference between local and state roads, but the fact is that getting anything done requires leadership at the county level. The Outer Beltway would have to be an interstate, not a state route. Unlike MD, VA has taken steps to qualify certain roads for interstate status. Given the latest humiliating MoCo jobs report, VA is hardly an "armpit" to large employers relocating there. But if you've tried to navigate Crystal City, you appreciate the smarter planning we used to have in MoCo at one time.
One of the purposes of this blog is to talk about how we can make this an even better place to live than it is now. I'm not about to leave my hometown just because we have an ineffective county council. I'm going to instead take action, and participate in the public dialogue on how we can solve these problems.
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