Transportation issues again being ignored, officials say

Meeting with MDOT reps leaves legislators feeling Southern Maryland is not a priority

The Maryland Department of Transportation makes annual rounds to each jurisdiction in the state to find out what its biggest transportation concerns are. According to Charles County’s Board of Commissioners and members of the Charles County delegation, it feels like every year Southern Maryland has transportation initiatives that go overlooked and unaddressed.

The biggest concerns in Charles County are finding ways to relieve traffic on the U.S. 301 and Route 5 corridor, and finding a

new means of transportation for commuters in the county through the Southern Maryland Rapid Transit initiative, which would either bring a light rail system or rapid bus transit commuter system to Southern Maryland.

Jim Ports, the deputy director of the state department of transportation, said funding for projects such as those simply is not available right now because of the lack of funding the state has available and the high number of requests that have been made around the state.

“Our budget is no different from your budget. I know your citizens have needs in Charles County and I’m sure you can’t fulfill all of their needs,” Ports said. “We have $75 billion worth of needs throughout the state and we have $14.4 billion to work with.”

And 53 percent of that $14.4 billion will go to road and highway infrastructure costs around Maryland, according to the state’s consolidated transportation plan.

In a letter to Pete Rahn, the secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, the county commissioners stated their top transportation priority was $25 million to push the rapid transit into its “project planning” phase. But, like other large transit projects in the state’s transportation plan, funds for the project will be delayed until 2023.

State Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) said “that is disturbing” to hear with the current problems Southern Marylanders experience on U.S. 301, Route 228 and Route 5.

“We’re one of the fastest growing areas in the state,” he said.

If the state is not going to move forward on any rapid transit system until 2023, the only alternative is having massive upgrades to U.S. 301, which would be a more expensive proposition, he said.

County commissioners and state legislators are bothered because they voted in favor of a rising gas tax last year under the impression that Southern Maryland would reap promised benefits from the state level, Middleton said. There still have not been any to date for the region.

Another huge concern for Southern Maryland, Del. Sally Jameson (D-Charles) said, is the funding for a replacement of the Gov. Harry Nice Memorial Bridge. Because the toll prices were lowered, it makes it more unlikely the state will fund any bridge replacement in the near future.

During the last Maryland General Assembly session, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) vetoed a bill that would put a funding system in place for the replacement of the bridge.

As it stands, Ports said, there is a $61 million commitment in the consolidated transportation plan addressing the Nice bridge and a study for a replacement.

Jameson said that project is important to Southern Maryland; drivers use it too often for it to be degrading the way it is. Besides aesthetics and the economic benefits from it, safety has become a concern.

“My own daughter had an incident where something fell from the top, hit her windshield and she almost had an accident on the top of that bridge,” Jameson said.

Commissioner Ken Robinson (D) said the bridge has created some of the worst traffic “I’ve ever seen.” A simple flat tire or fender-bender can cause the bridge to back up in both directions. There have even been times, he said, where traffic has backed up into La Plata.

But, again, Ports said, Hogan and Rahn have to prioritize different issues. Many jurisdictions have similar problems, and some are more concerning than those on the Nice bridge because people use them more.

The department had to cut $796 million from its budget and now must make up the losses with lower gas prices and reduced toll rates. “No one could have predicted this,” Ports said.

Commissioner Amanda Stewart (D) said prioritizing is important and something the state has to do, but Charles County and Southern Maryland always have priorities that never make the state’s list.

“That’s a problem,” she said. It does not need to come to something disastrous happening and for both the county and state to be “reactionary” to solve local transportation issues.

Robinson agreed with Stewart, saying, “Charles County feels like the state’s stepchild.”

Jason Groth, the chief of resource and infrastructure management in Charles County, said the SMRT project was one of the highest rated in the state’s transparency rating system and was marked as one of its priorities when funds become available.

“I don’t think you’ll find another jurisdiction that is more committed to a project,” Groth said. “What we’re looking for is that limited investment.”

Groth said the state has done good things for the county and included projects for relief at Mattawoman-Beantown Road and the Route 228 intersections. But the $25 million investment in project planning is the county’s priority.

Gary Hodge, an advocate for the light rail and a former county commissioner, said the meeting went as expected with Charles County not being a real priority for the state.

Citizens want this to happen, Hodge said, and they must let legislators on all levels know. Hodge said he created a coalition of 100 people, so far, to help make the light rail a priority.

At a community briefing on the light rail project on Monday, Arthur Ellis, the communications director of the Charles County NAACP, said elected officials need to listen to their citizens and have a better grasp of what they want.

“We go from study to study to study,” Ellis said. “They see the traffic. Why do we have to make them do their jobs?”

The county has one of the biggest commuter bases in the state, Ellis said, and it continues to grow. With the MGM National Harbor casino opening in Prince George’s County this December, he said, the need will only become more dire.

Ports said the need for the project is obvious, but it is also obvious for many areas around the state. Everyone’s needs will not be addressed.

All Ports can do, he said, is deliver these messages to Rahn. “But I can’t promise you anything else,” he said.