The urge for a new Potomac crossing hasn’t been this great in a long time. The fervor has reached a high enough boiling point that even the Outer Beltway monster, once vanquished in the 1990s, is back to haunt us again. Instead of a truck corridor, it is now being promoted as a development corridor which could connect the growing residence and businesses of Loudoun with the growing residents and businesses of Gaithersburg. It is also being sold as a way of reducing traffic on the inner beltway and east/westbound traffic on the toll road and route 7. We are not sure how effective this really would be, as previously discussed.
At best this new project would connect the #5 economic center of Metro Washington (Rockville) to the #8 economic center of Metro Washington (Eastern Loudoun/Western Fairfax). The current project is absolutely ridiculous because of the extensive amount of highway and right of way acquisition necessary to connect Route 28 to the ICC through desolate regions of Northern Virginia and even more expansive southern Montgomery County. The real driving cost? A right of way that is double what it needs to be, with an anticipated 90′ pavement width and plans to upgrade a half dozen intersections to be limited access ramps.
Why do we have to have everything all at once? This would be a huge risk to build such a massive project on the assumption of future growth, especially in the current environment in which large scale growth is occurring closer into the city drawing away large scale developers. Scaling back the plans isn’t acknowledging defeat, it’s compromising with existing realities. The cost of bridges and roadways are directly related to the total number of lane miles, not just the length of the road but how many lanes are involved. Reducing the pavement width to 60′ will directly reduce cost by a third of the anticipated cost. It will also reduce anxiety over massive environmental detriment and intrusive visual effects along the Potomac. A 4-lane bridge crossing can be constructed in a far more land sensitive and economical method than the current plans and more importantly the concept of the separated highway will not be necessary with this appropriate design, removing the need for a half dozen expensive on-ramps and overpasses.
This concept makes sense. No one denies that a resident of Herndon or Loudoun could use a better path to reach Maryland, specifically Montgomery County, but the issue has been molded into a traffic relief design. Traffic demands on this new road just don’t support the need for the massive up front investment, and more importantly would not support the tolls that would be necessary on the new bridge and ICC connection. Instead, lets make only 1 toll, for the bridge itself, priced around 2 or 3 dollars, and make the rest of the road a regular rural route through Maryland. 45 miles per hour is a heck of a lot better than 15 miles per hour like most Loudouners currently have to deal with in the west bound direction, who said it HAD to be another version of the beltway?
What does any of this mean though. The Route 28 bridge (let’s stop calling it the outer beltway) still isn’t very sustainable and by my own measures won’t make much of an impact on the regions economy. Well it brings partners to the table for an overall regional improvement. That overall regional improvement includes two new Potomac crossings for road users connecting Loudoun and Montgomery as described above, and a new river crossing that connects Tysons/McLean to Bethesda with a 495 relief bridge. A few kickers beyond tying the #1 economic center of Fairfax to the #1 economic center of Montgomery county?
This project makes it feasible for a Purple Line extension from Bethesda, across the Potomac on a shared rail/road bridge, stopping at Langley (can you say Federal assistance plus), and connecting to the Silver Line. A new Potomac crossing at this point will allow a half/half split of Orange line trips across the potomac, reducing the stress on the existing Orange/Blue Line Potomac tunnel. With all of the silver line removed from the tunnel, and 50% of orange line trains, direct traffic from Arlington and the Blue Line can have express routing to DC. Additionally, a large portion of riders who currently must transfer at metro center to reach Bethesda and use the outer Orange line system (Vienna/WFC) can now have direct service to Bethesda helping reduce the over capacity Orange Line trains. This can be done with a price tag of just 2 billion dollars through the use of the existing right of way.
Road users in this corridor, which is over strained from funneling on 495, would see an approximate (pending VDOT study of 267 traffic destinations) 40,000 users removed from 495 who currently travel in both directions between Bethesda and Tysons Corner/Arlington. Again, this bridge would be tolled at an economical rate of 3 dollars to help pay for it’s construction.
Wait didn’t this guy just say let’s NOT have everything all at once? Well here in is how we create a plan for the future without having to build it all at once. We create triggers in the system that indicate when elements become necessary, while saving a portion of the funds being attained today in an account that can reduce the effects of inflation.
- Silver Line ridership trigger
- 495 crossings trigger between Tysons/Bethesda
- Minimum saved via WMATA portioning
Let’s build the 4-lane bridge and connection for Loudoun and Western Fairfax, but with this sustainable design capable of full funding by Maryland and Virginia, let’s take the toll money raised and set aside 10% towards the future rail/road bridge, which in our previous analysis could raise around 20 million dollars over the next 10 years with a $2.50 toll price. As this project directly improves WMATA’s system, some of the funding should come from set aside assets from the Silver Line and Orange Line. A 10% set aside from all Silver/Orange/Red fares could raise $45+ million per year, providing for 25% of the project cost. With $500 million of the project covered, we are still left with a $1.5 billion dollar deficit. Enter the federal government which would be attaining a new road and rail connection to Langley and Bethesda Naval Hospital, two major elements of the local federal presence. How much is that worth? We think it is atleast as beneficial as the Silver Line was, and therefore should receive a similar funding of $900 million. The remaining $600 million would be shared between Virginia, Maryland, Fairfax, and Montgomery County.
Our first reaction in the current political climate is to isolate those who we disagree with. This occurs usually before understanding why a disagreement exists. By compromising and collaborating on the goals of both political, ideological, and economical views we can finally start to make order out of the chaos that is this region. We think this has to happen eventually, but it doesn’t have to happen all at once. Playing it safe, saving money in advance and making a plan, is something us as individuals do when we have a big ticket item on our minds and we should demand the same from our leaders. In our final look at this Potomac crossings project we will look at some more detailed design concepts.