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Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich wants the U.S. Department of Transportation to delay for at least 60 days a final decision on Maryland鈥檚 plan to add toll lanes to the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Elrich (D) urged the federal government not to render its final verdict on the proposal until the public has had an 鈥渁dequate鈥� opportunity to review a new 鈥� and voluminous 鈥� environmental analysis.
The executive also wants U.S. DOT to require the Maryland Department of Transportation to respond to 鈥渁ll substantive issues鈥� that have been raised by the public, and to do so 鈥渋n a meaningful and constructive聽way鈥� before giving the project the green light.
鈥淭he [Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)] and appendices total 26,500 pages in 74 separate files, and it was released on June 17 for 30-day review,鈥� Elrich wrote. 鈥淭his is an enormous amount of information to review in a short time period.鈥�
Elrich has been a persistent critic of Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.鈥檚 plan to rebuild the American Legion Bridge and add variably priced toll lanes to portions of Interstates 495 and 270. Business organizations have praised Hogan (R) for putting forward a plan to relieve some of the nation鈥檚 worst traffic spots. Project backers note that the state has made commitments to expand transit that weren鈥檛 part of the project when Hogan unveiled it in 2017.
But community organizations have formed to fight the project and environmental groups have raised numerous objections.
The feds are expected to let the state know whether it can proceed with the project on Aug. 5.
In a letter to Gregory Murrill, a top Federal Highway Administration official, Montgomery County state legislators also sought a delay, because 鈥渕uch of the material (in the FEIS) is new.鈥� The delegation asked that the public be given until Sept. 17 to review and comment upon the federally mandated environmental, public health and traffic analyses.
Lawmakers also noted that MDOT has acknowledged changing its approach to traffic modeling during the long period between the draft environmental statement and the final version.
鈥淭he Department chose to defer the release of federally mandated analyses and other missing information until issuance of the FEIS,鈥� lawmakers wrote. 鈥淎s a result, the public, its representatives, and reviewing agencies can only now begin examining long-requested environmental justice and greenhouse gas emissions analyses, mitigation plans, the project鈥檚 recently changed traffic model, and MDOT鈥檚 responses to the 5,000 comments it received during the public comment periods for the Draft EIS and Supplemental Draft EIS.鈥�
Environmental groups seek delay
Critics of the Hogan plan say the state shifted its methodology for determining how the toll lanes would impact commute times 鈥� without an explanation as to what changes were made. They also complained that State Highway Administration officials would only make modeling data available if the the group submitted a check for $21,975.81 ahead of time.
In a July 18 letter to the Federal Highway Administration and MDOT, a coalition of civic organizations said the project 鈥渕ust not move forward鈥� until 鈥渓ess harmful and costly alternatives鈥� have been evaluated. The groups wrote that the state鈥檚 review of the toll lanes plan 鈥渟eemed designed to reach a pre-determined result.鈥�
In a review of the FEIS commissioned by the Sierra Club, Norman Marshall, head of the traffic analysis firm Smart Mobility, took issue with the methodology used by the State Highway Administration.
鈥淪ome of the most fundamental rules about modeling appear to have been ignored鈥�,鈥� Marshall wrote, rattling off a dense list of what he said were flaws. 鈥淔urthermore, generic reference to 鈥榙esign updates and the forecasting refinements鈥� cannot explain the magnitude of change in the numbers between [draft] and [the final report].
Even without all the data, Marshall said 鈥渋t is possible to detect serious errors that appear to invalidate the model outputs.鈥�
鈥淭hose outputs, some of them illogical, appear to overstate travel time savings and inadequately capture congestion, gridlock conditions, and bottlenecks,鈥� he added.
State transportation officials have acknowledged聽聽in their modeling, saying they did so in response to public comments. They did not elaborate.
Marshall also claimed that the state altered modeling parameters 鈥渋n order to make the modeled traffic metrics look better than they did鈥� in the first report. Marshall鈥檚 resume boasts 34 years of experience in transportation modeling and planning.
Earlier this month, project critic Ben Ross, head of the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition,聽聽to order an independent review of unexplained changes in the state鈥檚 analysis to rule out possible 鈥渟cientific fraud.鈥�
The Sierra Club and other opponents of the toll lanes plan expressed anger at MDOT鈥檚 decision to 鈥減assword protect鈥� the FEIS, a move that makes it impossible for citizens and journalists to copy and paste portions of the document.
In a letter to Andrew Gallant, a Rockville resident, project manager Jeffrey Folden defended the decision. Folden said restricting cut-and-paste 鈥渙ffers graphic integrity and preserves intended content and layout鈥�.鈥�
Environmental reports are 鈥渙fficial documents for which the integrity of the content needs to be protected.鈥�
