FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Josh Tulkin, josh.tulkin@mdsierra.org, 240-764-5307
Defying Vote of Regional Transportation Planning Board,
MWCOG Revives Private Toll Lane Scheme Along Entire MD Beltway
Project ID T6432 on page 95 of CLRP Appendix B
MARYLAND - The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (MWCOG's) new long-range transportation plan revives Governor Hogan’s original proposal to build private toll lanes along the entirety of the Maryland Beltway, from the American Legion Bridge to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
MWCOG staff buried its approval of the multi-billion-dollar Beltway widening on page 95 of Appendix B of Visualize 2045’s more than 1,000 pages of documentation.
The inclusion of the widely rejected Beltway plan ignores the July 2021 decision of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board not to include toll lanes on the majority of the Beltway.
“This is definitely not what the TPB voted for,” said Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton, an outspoken critic of the toll-lane project and a former Chair of the TPB.
After the July 2021 vote, MWCOG itself noted, “…the project had been extensively revised since it was first proposed in 2017”, and quoted former MDOT Secretary Slater saying, “Through extensive coordination and input from affected counties and the public and stakeholders, we’ve reduced the scope of the project.”
The MWCOG about-face also ignores the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Maryland Board of Public Works votes on the limited project scope. The BPW has not approved toll lanes on the majority of the Beltway.
“MDOT’s stealth move to push the Beltway toll lanes on MWCOG continues the Hogan Administration’s end run around local authorities and the public,” says Barbara Coufal of Citizens Against Beltway Expansion.
"With this latest move, MDOT and its allies are displaying the truth of this project: it’s an all or nothing proposition," said Josh Tulkin of Maryland Sierra Club. “Their fixed objective is to encircle Washington, DC, with Transurban toll lanes, whatever it takes.”
“We see once again that the toll lane promoters’ promises aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. A vote for any part of this project is a vote for the entire misbegotten scheme,” said Ben Ross of the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition.
Many TPB members and elected officials supported the new plan in July and August 2021 based on promises that it no longer includes the rest of the Beltway. They owe it to their constituents to go on record now, rejecting the entire toll lane project.
Visualize 2045, which was released on April 1, will be formally adopted in June. The public comment period for the long-range plan runs until May 1.