The Washington region needs another Potomac crossing, a wider Beltway, more capacity at the American Legion Bridge, and an I-270
Maryland transportation policy has an old habit. Study the traffic. Form a committee. Hold some meetings. Produce another environmental report. Then come back five years later and wonder why the traffic is worse.
We have been doing that around Washington for decades.
It is time to build.
The numbers on the American Legion Bridge should end the argument. When the bridge opened in the 1960s, it carried roughly 48,000 vehicles a day. Today, roughly 216,000 vehicles and more than 21,000 heavy trucks cross it daily. Yet Montgomery County and Fairfax County still depend on essentially one Beltway crossing of the Potomac.
That is not a transportation system. That is a bottleneck we have institutionalized.
One Bridge Is Not Enough
Replacing the American Legion Bridge is necessary, but simply replacing what is there is not enough.
A new bridge should provide express toll lanes, modern shoulders, and improved interchange connections. It should also accommodate future transportation needs and population growth. The Beltway should approach the bridge. In addition, the Beltway should include a bypass similar to the Richmond bypass. A beltway bypass would take trucks and travelers going north and south to skip the gridlock on the beltway.
Maryland should also restart serious planning for an additional Potomac River crossing west of the American Legion Bridge.
That idea will immediately produce objections. Environmental concerns. Induced demand. Cost. Development.
Those issues deserve consideration. But another question deserves consideration too: what happens when a metropolitan region of more than six million people relies on one major western Beltway crossing for another 30 years?
We already know the answer. We are sitting in it.
Give Drivers a Choice
There is a sensible way to pay for additional capacity without simply sending the entire bill to Maryland taxpayers.
Use a public-private partnership.
Governor Wes Moore and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have already agreed to consider a P3 to accelerate reconstruction of the American Legion Bridge. That is welcome news.
Maryland should go further.
Maryland must move forward with HOT lanes on both the Capital Beltway and I-270, adding new capacity alongside the existing free lanes. This is not some untested idea. Maryland is already pursuing managed-lane concepts on the Baltimore Beltway I-695. Gov. Hogan’s administration spent years studying how a public-private partnership could finance major improvements to I-495 and I-270 without putting the entire burden on taxpayers.
Motorists who value a faster, more reliable trip can choose to use the HOT lanes. They can choose to pay for that convenience. Everyone else can remain in the regular lanes at no additional charge.
Done properly, HOT lanes would add capacity, improve travel-time reliability, and bring private capital into projects Maryland has delayed for far too long.
Virginia has already demonstrated that express-lane networks can provide another option while bringing private investment into major highway projects.
That is considerably more practical than congestion pricing designed to make driving more expensive everywhere.
Remember What Maryland Did Right
Maryland already has a model for building a long-delayed highway project.
It is the Bob Ehrlich Expressway (MD 200), the Intercounty Connector, now officially dedicated to former Governor Bob Ehrlich.
The Bob Ehrlich Expressway (ICC) had been discussed in one form or another since the 1950s. Governors talked about it; planners studied it; opponents tried to bury it!!! Thre was only one governor who made it happen. In 2002, Governor Bob Ehrlich campaigned on building the ICC, connecting Montgomery County’s I270 to Interstate 95.
Bob Ehrlich took the bold steps to build the ICC, now known as the Bob Ehrlich Expressway. Gov. Ehrlich understood how the ICC would move 1000s of cars all the way down to the beltway around to get to I-95 north. Now, because of the vision of Gov. Ehrlich, residents of northern Montgomery County or those of Howard County, Anne Arundel, and PG County heading up 270 could take the Ehrlich Expressway and avoid the Beltway traffic.
Gov. Ehrlich got the project off the drawing board after decades of delay. The old joke was you’d see signs that said Future Home of the ICC, with “I Like Ike” signs under it. Ehrlich secured federal support and pushed it through when many people were content to keep studying it to death. Today, the Governor Bob Ehrlich Expressway (MD 200), gives drivers an 18-mile connection between the I-270 and I-95 corridors. It also became Maryland’s first all-electronic toll road, using variable pricing to help keep traffic moving instead of letting the road clog up like so many others in the region.
People can argue about the ICC’s history and financing. What they cannot argue with is the pavement. It exists.
That is the lesson Maryland needs on I-270.
Build the I-270 Expressway Maryland Needs
I-270 should become the next great Maryland highway modernization project.
Adding lanes. Reconstruct outdated interchanges. Extend managed express lanes north toward Frederick. Use all-electronic tolling. Use variable pricing similar to the Gov. Bob Ehrlich Expressway (MD 200). Bring private capital into the project through a carefully written P3 that protects taxpayers while requiring the private partner to meet specific performance standards.
And connect the whole system logically: Frederick to Montgomery County, I-270 to the Beltway, across an expanded American Legion Bridge and into Virginia’s express-lane network.
That is transportation planning.
For too long, Maryland has treated highway capacity as something vaguely embarrassing, as though commuters will disappear if government makes driving sufficiently miserable.
They will not.
People drive because they have jobs, families, businesses, appointments and lives.
Mass transit absolutely belongs in the solution. So do MARC, Metro, buses and telework.
But roads belong there too.
We do not need another generation of studies explaining why Washington has terrible traffic.
We need another Potomac crossing. We need more Beltway capacity. We need a bigger American Legion Bridge. And we need to bring the Gov. Bob Ehrlich vision and approach to I-270:
Stop studying the traffic jams and start building the road.
Endnotes
1. American Legion Bridge and Regional Traffic Challenges https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/
2. Joint Statement on Accelerating the American Legion Bridge
https://governor.maryland.gov/news/press-releases/joint-statement-governor-moore-and-united-states-transportation-secretary-duffy
3. Intercounty Connector / MD 200 https://mdta.maryland.gov/ICC/ICC.html
4. Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and the ICC https://www.mdta.maryland.gov/MDTA_Facility_Dedications
5. I-495 and I-270 Public-Private Partnershiphttps://roads.maryland.gov/mdotsha/pages/pressreleasedetails.aspx?PageId=0&newsId=3397
Scott Marshall is a Junior writer for Direct Line News, covering economics, governance, and American political culture.
Direct Line News is a Maryland-based free-access publication committed to the Republican reform tradition.
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