Thursday, July 23, 2015

VDOT out of step with MD, VA leaders on new Potomac River crossing

The Virginia Department of Transportation has lost a few steps since Gov. Bob McDonnell left office. While some overt - and in more cases subtle - steps toward building a second Potomac River bridge were taken during the McDonnell years, the latest talking points from VDOT are decidedly less favorable toward such a venture.

VDOT recently released a study of traffic on existing Potomac River crossings that did briefly mention a new bridge remaining a long-term option. But the study "results" strongly favored another option, the extension of HOT lanes along I-495 over the American Legion Bridge onto Maryland's stretch of the Capital Beltway. That's certainly a positive and common sense option that should indeed go forward, particularly to give Beltway drivers willing to pay the toll a faster route.

But HOT lanes on the existing bridge won't give Montgomery County the economic benefit of a more direct route to Dulles Airport, the preferred flight option of firms who do business internationally. Conversely, they won't help boost economic development in the Dulles area, either. And they won't solve the reality that about 25% of Legion bridge traffic is traveling to, or from, the Dulles area.

That latter figure, from a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments study, mysteriously appears nowhere in the report. Other figures that are in the report are questionable, such as the maximum speed claims for rush hour traffic in the area of the bridge on the Beltway. As bad as they sound, they're too fast for Legion bridge commuters to believe.
22.5 MPH speed crossing
from Tysons to Bethesda
during evening rush?
Traffic isn't moving
that fast in real life
There's one other engineering issue: the current Legion bridge isn't wide enough to hold an extension of the Virginia HOT lanes. Widening a bridge is not easy. The report makes no mention of the costs and challenges in doing so.

Moreover, VDOT's downplaying of a new crossing is out of step with their own elected leaders, and the change in leadership on our side of the river. Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently endorsed a new Potomac River bridge at a conference called Dulles Matters. U.S. Senator Mark Warner favors a new bridge, as well.

Maryland has a new governor, too. But Virginia's transportation secretary apparently hasn't heard yet. In his usual dismissal of a new Potomac River crossing, the Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock quotes him as follows: 

“Maryland has publicly stated they’re not interested in any additional river crossings,” Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne told members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board. “Okay, what’s the practical solution we can work on?”

That's complete baloney. Gov. Larry Hogan has never publicly stated he's not interested in any additional river crossings. That was the previous, Martin O'Malley administration that stonewalled any attempt to discuss the matter by Virginia officials.

By all means, go ahead and extend the HOT lanes. But this is also the time to finally begin a legitimate dialogue on a new bridge between the two states, while common-sense governors who understand highways are the major transportation method of the majority of commuters, and will remain so in the future.

Images: VDOT

29 comments:

  1. I have a sword that glows blue when trolls are nearby. They're coming. Run!

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  2. Anonymous6:30 AM

    Raise the gas tax don't cop out with toll lanes.

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  3. Anonymous6:31 AM

    You realize that the strongest opposition to a new bridge is coming from residents in the areas of Fairfax and Loudoun Counties between Dulles and the river, don't you?

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  4. Anonymous6:56 AM

    Everybody wants a change that will improve things, but nobody wants it if they'll be adversely affected by it. I don't know where they can put the new crossing without affecting very affluent neighborhoods, and those residents will fight it will all they have. Time for annexation/eminent domain action? Pardon me while I duck!

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  5. Anonymous7:02 AM

    I am sure the companies we want to do this for will be glad to help pay for a new bridge and to help buy up all those properties along the route. They will not even ask for a tax break for locating to MoCo.

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  6. Anonymous7:02 AM

    Executive Boulevard and Rockledge are the next White Flint.

    Interesting article in yesterday's Post explaining why suburban office parks are going the way of enclosed suburban shopping malls:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-old-suburban-office-park-is-the-new-american-ghost-town/2015/07/20/b8e7653a-1f6e-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. I think the article is a bit skewed. The bulk of the vacancies there are caused by NCI moving to Shady Grove *Hospital* nowhere near a Metro. NIAID did move to Fisher's Lane near a Metro. But NCI chose to move away from a reasonable walk to White Flint to a potential future stop of the CCT. I work in Rock Spring and it's 8 minutes on the bus from White Flint when I go that way. The NIH Shuttle time from Medical Center is much, much longer.

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  9. Anonymous7:30 AM

    @ 7:10 AM - And Dyer's shameful censorship continues.

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  10. Anonymous7:33 AM

    7:30 AM looks like the commenter removed his own comment. How is that Dyer censorship? More like self-censorship.

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  11. Anonymous7:37 AM

    MoCo residents commuting back home from Tysons in peak rush hour would love to be moving at 23mph. I call BS on that mph data. Traffic is crawling at best, stop and start.

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  12. Anonymous7:37 AM

    Readers are so scared of Dyer's censorship that they are self-censoring.

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  13. Anonymous8:17 AM

    They should do both, but the new bridge crossing would take 20 years at least, based on how long it took to build the ICC. Adding a lane to the American Leg Bridge is a good short-term fix. It is indeed already 5 lanes wide anyway -- the right-most lane is an exit for Clara Barton or GW Parkways.. They should make it a through lane instead.

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  14. Anonymous8:19 AM

    Oh how I wish the troll(s) would just go away! You can't have a serious discussion without some jerk attacking Dyer for some warped personal reason. I wish the site editor would just delete those comments as soon as they appear since they add nothing at all to the thread.

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  15. I deleted my own comment to fix a couple of typos.

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  16. Andrew, I agree, that Post article was absolutely biased, if not outright propaganda. Since when does Dan Zak write about real estate, anyway?

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  17. Anonymous7:52 PM

    There goes Dyer, poisoning the well again.

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  18. 6:31: You are largely correct, although the bigger problem has been that Maryland's past governor was opposed. There is a formidable astroturf opposition in Virginia, funded by urban developers who will profit if people can't easily commute from farther away locations, and developer front groups like the Rockefeller Foundation and Piedmont. Basically, there's one set of homebuilders who do residential in exurbs who would benefit by the crossing, and another who do "inside the Beltway" mixed-use development. They are battling it out through proxy groups. We need to put those private financial considerations aside, and do what is best for commuters region wide - building additional river crossings.

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  19. 7:02: Real reason for vacancies in Rock Spring/Rockledge: failure of the county to attract the large employers who require those kind of office park sites - defense, aerospace, high-level cybersecurity, research and development laboratories. They're a different category from the employers who are better fit for urban office space like at Pike & Rose or Bethesda Row.

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  20. 8:17: Well, the Outer Beltway has taken even longer than the ICC from first being proposed. But if you start the clock with Bob Ehrlich and other elected officials getting behind the ICC to benefit Konterra, it actually didn't take that long to build it. Same thing with the Woodrow Wilson bridge for National Harbor. When a developer needs something in order to build, you'd be amazed how quick it gets done.

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  21. Anonymous4:49 AM

    "There is a formidable astroturf opposition in Virginia, funded by urban developers"

    Oh, here we go again with this lame fantasy.

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  22. Anonymous5:02 AM

    8:03 PM - how many times do you need to be reminded that the situation is the same or worse in NoVa?

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  23. I should also point out that when an NIH Institute moves, a lot of contractor leased space goes with it. NIH contractors will often lease space in the same building or office park. You may remember during one of the shutdown showdowns the lease of the giant HHS Building on Parklawn was re-negotiated to keep them from moving out of the county. In all the NIH cases so far the space has remained in the county.

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  24. 5:02: Yeah, it's so bad that we lost Intelsat, CEB and, most recently, Lidl headquarters to Virginia in the latest round of corporate changes of address. Put the pom poms away.

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  25. 4:49: It's not only real, but they've even gotten involved in financially backing BRT propaganda here in Montgomery County. Just what we need, more outsiders telling us how we're going to live and commute. Something they have in common with Hans Riemer.

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  26. Anonymous5:49 PM

    Hans Riemer is a twice-elected County Council member, not some random "outsider telling us how we're going to live". Lose the resentment, seriously.

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  27. 5:49: Lose your "resentment" over the credibility lifelong residents have over carpetbagging outsiders who unpack the U-Haul, and then use tens of thousands of dollars from Wall Street crooks and their lobbyists to run for office.

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  28. Anonymous9:38 PM

    "Lifelong resident" is not a resume. Deal with that.

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    1. 9:38: In politics and hyperlocal journalism, lifelong resident trumps resume every time. I also happen to have an extensive resume as an activist in local politics. But I'm glad you brought up resumes, because there are still questions about Hans Riemer's. For example, was he or was he not the youth director for the Obama campaign on Election Day in November 2008, as he's claimed in 2010 and 2014? #Oops

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