Thomas Johnson bridge is big Capital for a Day topic

Transportation is focus of O’Malley visit to St. Mary’s

Friday, July 18, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Gov. Martin O’Malley gets his initial impression of the newly constructed Leonardtown Wharf with St. Mary’s County commission President Francis J. Russell, left, and J. Harry Norris, the town’s mayor, before making their way to the Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department on Thursday morning. The governor was in St. Mary’s as part of the Capital for a Day publicity tour. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Southern Maryland officials have long sought state funding to replace or expand the narrow two-lane bridge that is a routine rush-hour bottleneck in the fast-growing region. O’Malley (D) included $4 million in his fiscal 2009 capital budget for planning funds that passed the General Assembly this year and expressed a desire to commit more dollars in the future for design and construction.

‘‘I’m hopeful that even under the current administration that there might be a second stimulus for projects that are already teed up and ready to go,” he said Thursday during state Capital for a Day festivities on the waterfront in Leonardtown. ‘‘I am keeping my fingers crossed on that, and I think it’s a possibility.”

The State Highway Administration held public workshops on each side of the bridge last month to present the three alternatives: widen the existing bridge, replace it at the current site or build a new span farther north of the current alignment at Myrtle Point.

The $4 million for planning will enable state highway officials to determine the best option by fall of 2009, said Gregory Welker, SHA’s District 5 engineer. Project planning could be completed by fall of 2011, design would take another three years and construction would last between two and three years, he said.

Regardless, O’Malley hopes the next president will provide federal funds to accelerate greatly needed transportation projects such as the 31-year-old bridge that links St. Mary’s and Calvert counties.

‘‘We’ve been able to muster together the consensus we needed to increase the Transportation Trust Fund and we’ll be moving forward as quickly as we can, but a big part of this will be a change in our federal government,” O’Malley said. ‘‘All of these projects require some federal partnership. I think the most effective economic stimulus is one that gives you something that’s lasting and one that has an impact on the economy for years and years after the investment is made and that’s why the investments in roads and other infrastructure ... [will be] the subject of the next federal stimulus and hopefully the objective of the next federal administration.”

Lawmakers put an additional $400 million into the depleted Transportation Trust Fund by increasing taxes during last year’s special session, but subtracted $50 million of that earlier this year to help cover the repeal of the 6 percent sales tax on computer services.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. made an initial $1.5 million investment in 2006 toward planning for a new bridge, but officials have acknowledged that such an expensive project — estimates go up to $700 million, depending on the bridge alignment — could take years to build. And several expensive projects, particularly the $2.4 billion Intercounty Connector linking Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, are gobbling up a big chunk of the available transportation dollars.

‘‘Transportation is the hot topic,” said St. Mary’s County Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D). ‘‘It boils down to money. Everybody’s got those issues in a state that’s growing and that’s certainly the priority down here.”

Sen. Roy P. Dyson (D-St. Mary’s, Calvert, Charles), who has long advocated a new Thomas Johnson Bridge, said he is confident that O’Malley will follow through on his commitment to make progress on the project. Dyson recalled how the bridge was deemed structurally unsafe 20 years ago, which is reason enough to make it the state’s No. 1 transportation priority.

Others were more pessimistic about the fiscal realities of such a costly project.

‘‘I don’t think it’s something they’re going to drop the ball on, but it’s going to be a lengthy project,” said St. Mary’s County commission President Francis Jack Russell (D).

Acknowledging that the state is strapped for cash, lawmakers asked the state transportation department earlier this year to explore ways to alleviate congestion on both sides approaching the bridge. Welker said his office is looking at possibly using the northbound shoulder as an additional lane, but that is the only short-term fix under consideration. He expects that analysis to be completed within six months.

‘‘Really, the bottleneck is the bridge,” he said. ‘‘We can get people to the bridge faster, but we still have to get them across the river.”

But House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary’s) is dissatisfied that studies of the improvements have taken so long.

‘‘Six months may sound reasonable to someone sitting in a high-rise bureaucratic building, but six months doesn’t seem reasonable at all to someone sitting in traffic going to work each and every day,” he said. ‘‘If Southern Maryland transportation priorities were truly a priority, this could be done much sooner.”

O’Malley, however, pointed out the state’s investment in other local projects — the $38 million dualization of Route 237 and the eventually widening of Route 5 in Leonardtown —as evidence that he is committed to solving the region’s transportation woes as quickly as possible.