Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot announced on January 3 that they would not work at expanding the Beltway (I-495) for now, but would focus on I-270. The deal comes before the January 8 scheduled meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works, which still needs to approve the plan. Hogan and Franchot take up two of the three seats on the board. State Treasurer Nancy Kopp has the third.
Hogan’s original Traffic Relief Plan called for widening 495 as well as 270, in order to relieve traffic congestion. That proposal would have taken land adjacent to the highway, which includes homes in Greenbelt as well as other parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties.
Franchot, a Democrat and resident of Montgomery County, fought that plan. He said that he was pleased with the outcome of the discussions. “As a result of our agreement, no private properties will be acquired by the state of Maryland for this project without final approval of the P3 agreement by the Board of Public Works.”
The new plan includes building toll lanes on 270 but allowing existing lanes to remain without tolls. Franchot said that Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties would receive “direct transit subsidies from the project’s toll receipts, the details of which will be specified in a Memorandum of Understanding between the state and the two counties.”
On January 3, Hogan said the agreement “marks a monumental achievement for our region.” He continued: “This means that we can finally move forward on our historic interstate agreement with Virginia to build a new American Legion Bridge and to solve what has been the number one problem in the Washington Capital Region for decades.”