Sun photo/2003         

The plea came from reader Gloria Kukan of New Jersey in Dec. 10, just as I was about to decamp on a weeklong vacation, so this inquiry couldn't be answered quickly. Fortunately, it has a happy ending, courtesy of the Maryland Transportation Authority. Here's the story:

I was told about your column “Getting There” and that you often write of the MdTA. I have a problem that I’m not sure how to progress with and hope that you may have some insight with.

My issue involves the EZ Pass toll plaza at the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Maryland. While returning to NJ from business trip on 08 Oct 2009, I had to pass through this plaza. Since I am reimbursed for all tolls I pay by my company, I need to provide receipts thereby requiring the use of “Cash” only lanes

Continue reading "Toll authority makes amends" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Apart from disasters, transportation stories tend to unfold over the course of many years. Some of the ones that garner big headlines at the time will be all but forgotten in a few years time. So in choosing the Top 10 Maryland transportation stories of the past decade, it helps to project forward to 2020 or 2030 and look back at what made a lasting difference.

A little disclosure is in order. I have covered transportation for The Sun since 2004 and before that followed many transportation-related stories as a State House Bureau reporter. So there might be a bias in favor of the stories I covered. (Thanks to my colleague Scott Calvert to reminding me of the Howard Street Tunnel fire, which occurred before my time on the beat.)

With those caveats, I present my top 10 in the bottom-to-top format made wildly popular by David Letterman:

10. Light rail double-tracking project completed. When Baltimore's light rail system opened early in the 1990s, it soon became clear that the system had been built on the cheap. The decision to run trains on a single track over long stretches led to constant delays and operational difficulties. Thus, under the Glendening administration, the decision was made to add a second track. The Ehrlich administration then made a tough decision to expedite the work by closing down the southern and northern stretches of the system for periods of about a year. It was a rough time for light rail users, but the project was finally completed in early 2006, and the result has been much more reliable service on this still image-impaired system.

                                                                                                 Sun photo/Amy Davis/2006      

Continue reading "Top 10 Md. transportation stories: 2000-2009" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Last weekend’s record December snowfall cost the Maryland Department of Transportation a budget-busting $26.9 million for snow removal, Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley said Tuesday. The storm, which dumped an estimated 16-26 inches on various parts of the state, required a massive and expensive response by all of the transportation department’s operating agencies – from the State Highway Administration to the Motor Vehicle Administration.

The largest share was accounted for by the highway agency, with $20 million in costs. After several earlier snowfalls, the SHA’s spending on snow removal has reached $27 million this season -- exceeding its budget of $26 million with more than two months of winter to go, according to MDOT. Snow removal at BWI Marshall Airport cost $2.7 million, while the Maryland Transit Administration spent $2.3 million to keep its buses and transit lines rolling. The Maryland Transportation Authority spent $1.1 million to clear thhe state’s toll facilities, while it cost the port of Baltimore $533,000 to keep its terminals operating..

"Combating a storm like the one Maryland faced this weekend is a necessary but expensive proposition," Swaim-Staley said. "Agency administrators understand that they will have to make adjustments in other areas of their operating budgets to cover any overage of their annual snow removal budget."

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Air travel, Baltimore Metro, City bus service, MTA bus system, Maryland toll facilities, On the roads
        

While I was on vacation last week, the Maryland Transportation Authority took a vote on the toll structure for the Intercounty Connector. Not only did the board do right by the Baltimore region by brushing aside howls from Montgomery County that the tolls would be too high, the nine-member body made some wise improvements to the original plan.

By approving peak rates as high as 35 cents a mile, the board did its best too make sure that ICC users pay as  much of the cost of building the highway as possible. Giving them a break, as demanded by the Montgomery County Council and other elected officials, would have created a shortfall that likely would have had to be made up for with toll increases at bridges, tunnels and highways that are heavily used by Baltimore-area residents.

Continue reading "Authority gets it right on ICC tolls" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Maryland Transportation Authority photo         

Sometimes the things government transportation agencies do -- and undo -- are baffling to ordinary travelers. A smart, useful innovation appears -- only to disappear mysteriously. Seldom does the public learn why.

Readers of this blog can now learn about the Case of the Purple Dots at the Fort McHenry Tunnel thanks to a perceptive question from reader Mary McDonald about the Fort McHenry Tunnel Toll Plaza (above) and a refreshingly candid response from Teri Moss of the Maryland Transportation Authority (awkwardly abbreviated below as MDTA).

Continue reading "The curious case of the purple dots explained" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The Washington Examiner reports that the Montgomery County Council is asking the Maryland Transportation Authority to back off its plans for charging tolls on the Intercounty Connector in line with what the authority's consultant figures the market will bear.

The Council is also asking the authority to phase in a $3 fee for those who use the tollroad without an E-ZPass -- a charge intended to cover the extra cost of billing vehicles on the basis of license plate photos for use of the tollbooth-free road. On top of that, it wants a subsisized commuter rate that is at odds with the plan to use toll rates to eliminate congestion on the ICC.

These ideas certainly sound good to Montgomery County elected officials because they are nothing more than an added subsidy for use of a road that is already heavily subsidized. The problem, from a Baltimore point of view, is that an additional subsidy for the ICC means it will generate less revenue than expected. That means a greater share of the debt service on its bonds will have to be paid out of some other revenue stream.

There aren't a whole lot of other places for the authority to look for that revenue. Maryland now has seven toll facilities. None is anywhere close to Montgomery County. Except for one, the U.S. 301 bridge over the Potomac River, they are all located entirely or partly in the Baltimore region. (The Bay Bridge, the two Susquehanna River Bridges, the Francis Scott Key Bridge, shown above, and the two Baltimore Harbor tunnels.)

So if the authority gives ICC users a break, it's going to have to do so by socking users of those other facilities just a little harder when the next toll increase comes up in  2011-2012. There's really no way around it: The bond rating agencies are expecting a revenue increase in a certain range. If the authority wimps out about imposing sufficient toll increases to generate that revenue, Maryland risks a credit downgrade. That would cost us all  in future borrowing.

I can understand the Montgomery Council seeking a break for its constituents, who will likely be the most frequent users of the ICC. What I can't understand is why we aren't hearing an outcry from elected officials from the Baltimore region, the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland warning the authority against shifting ICC costs to the people they represent.

 Users of Baltimore-area toll facilities are already paying a premium on their tolls to help build the ICC. Don't hit us with more of the bill because  the very people who begged the state to build the ICC are now shocked at the price tag.

Sun photo

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

The Maryland Transportation Authority has retained its coveted Aa3 rating by Moody's as it prepares to sell abbout $532 billion in bonds to hellp finance the Intercounty Connector and other projects.

Moody's pointed to the authority's long history of financial stability and to its independent board's ability and willingness  to raise tolls when needed.

In the bond rater's estimation, Maryland tolls remain "relatively low."

The good news: Moody's predicts the authority will be able to keep up its "strong financial profile" and reliable debt service.

The bad news: "Key to the forecast are assumed toll rate increases of 48% in 2012 and 23% in 2014. "

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

The Montgomery County Council, led by Chairman Phil Andrews, might just have opened a door they would have preferred to keep closed.

Ben Ross of the Action Committee for Transit points out that the solution Andrews suggested and the Council endorsed for relieving congestion in the Interstate 270 corridor -- the addition of two reversible express lanes between Shady Grove and Frederick -- is not  one of the alternatives included in the State Highway Administration's I-270 Corridor Study.

To move in the direction the Council suggests would require a new study of the plan's costs and feasibilty, Ross notes. So if transportation officials decide to reopen the study to examine one plan, Ross asks, why not open it up to other alternatives -- including ACT's suggestion of an all-transit option for relieving the corridor's stress?

It seems to me that Ross has a point. A lot has happened since transit was last  looked  at, including massive cost increases for some of the alternatives that have been studied. I'd also like to have them take a glance, at least, at my suggestion of a single reversible lane for buses and high-occupancy vans only at peak times. (Let trucks use it off-peak to separate them from cars.)

Some proponents of widening I-270 to the max have dismissed the notion of any further study -- insisting it will only delay the project. But all you have to do is look at the finances of the Maryland Transportation Authority and you'll see it may be a long time before any project of the magnitude of an I-270 widening can be financed.

So let's study away: the Andrews plan, the Ross plan, the off-the-wall-Baltimore-Guy plan, whatever.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Look out this weekend for lane closings on the eastern end of the Harbor Tunnel Thruway (Interstate 895).

The Maryland Transportation Authority plans to close one eastbound and one westbound lane of the thruway tonight at 9 p.m. for emergency deck repairs. The lanes will remain closed until 9 a.m. Sunday.

The westbound lane will be closed from O'Donnell Street to the tunnel entrance. The eastbound lane will be closed from the tunnel to past Holabird Avenue. Exit 10 will be closed.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

If you have an E-ZPass, crossing the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge is going to get a bit easier. If you're paying cash, maybe not.

In response to increased E-ZPass use, the Maryland Transportation Authority is changing its lane configuration at the Key Bridge. The change will cut the number of lanes with toll collectors and increase the number that take E-ZPass only.

Currently there are three E-ZPass-only lanes in each direction and three that take both the passes and cash. After the change is implemented this weekend, there will be four E-ZPass-only and two pass-or-cash lanes each way.

The changes will also group the E-ZPass only lans to the left and the mixed-use lanes to the right. The change will create an E-ZPass-only lane on the right side of the toll plaza that trucks can use.

The authority said the changes will improve traffic flow and allow motorists to get to the right lanes more efficiently. The agency said 70 percent of vehicles on the bridge now use E-ZPass.

Obviously, this means fewer toll plaza lanes will be staffed by human collectors. For cash customers, that can only mean more waiting. However, the Key Bridge is one of the least congested Maryland toll facilities so maybe it won't be too bad.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Wednesday night's hearing on the Maryland Transportation Authority's ICC toll proposal in Beltsville brought a sparse response -- most of it predictable complaints about the decision to build the road in the first place.

During the first two hours and ten minutes of the three-hour hearing, only 11 people spoke -- three of them local elected officials. There were long periods where the board stood in recess, waiting to see if any speakers would show up.

Nobody spoke in favor of the authority's toll proposal. But the arguments against it were for the most part unfocused and not very specific. Some argued against collecting tolls at all -- apparently unaware that that train long ago left the station.

Prince George's County Councilman Tom Dernoga made one of the few points that might resonate with the authority board. he pointed out that the proposal of a 3-mile minimum falls hardest on residents of Prince George's County who might want to use the stretch between Interstate 95 and Virginia Manor Road -- a 3/4-mile trip. It's not a big revenue item and it does pose an equity issue to charge them for 3 miles.

But based on the turnout at the first hearing, it's hard to see the board making any big changes to the proposal, which could mean tolls of up to $6 for a one-way trip the full length of the ICC when it opens in late 2011 or early 2012.

There's another hearing Thursday night in Gaithersburg. Those who know are expecting a bigger turnout in Montgomery County.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Cavan Wilks has written a perceptive piece for the Greater Greatter Washington blog about the high tolls motorists can look forward to when the Intercounty Connector opens.

Essentially, Wilks delivers the message that the announced ICC tolls are expensive because the road itself has been expensive to build. He theorizes -- and I suspect he's correct -- that the ICC experience will sour the public on the cost of new highways.

Tolls were accepted by the public in the pre-interstate era because people really wanted roads to match the explosive growth in the availability of cars. But once the interstate system was born in 1956 and the concept of the freeway caught on, tolled highways seemed anachronistic. Before the ICC, no tollroads have been built in Maryland since the Kennedy Highway in the early 1960s.

In Maryland, all of our current tollls are on old infrastructure -- built at a  time  when construction costs were much less. No new toll facilities have come on line since the Fort McHenry Tunnel in 1985. Generally, Maryland's existing tolls aren't that onerous. Sure, you'll pay $5 to go north on the Kennedy Highway, but it's free coming back. The Bay Bridge toll of $2.50, collected from eastbound drivers only, is still the best bargain in Maryland.

Continue reading "Will ICC give tolls a bad name?" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Reports about an academic study about the effects of traffic congestion on infant health show how easy it is to put misinformation on a fast track in blog world. Contrary to the Internet buzz, there is no report showing that using E-ZPass will make your baby healthier.

There is a  Columbia University report  by Janet Currie and Reed Walker that first came to my attention with an email with the intriguing subject line: "Parents with EZ-Pass have healthier babies?" It directed me to the usually reliable InsideCharmCity blog, which briefly reported  that the study  "finds that parents who use EZPass have healthier babies"  and credited the excellent Greater Greater Washington blog.

Continue reading "E-ZMyth about E-ZPass" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

The Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge was in the news last week, along with the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge. It seems both Susquehanna River bridges' foundations have shown signs of advanced deterioration -- requiring an accelerated rehab program over the next several years.

So who were these fellows whose names now adorn some of Maryland's most importatnt transportation facilities?

Tydings is easy to track down. He was a highly respected four-term U.S. senator (1927-1951) who lived in the Susquehanna River town of Havre de Grace. He died in 1961, so when the Interstate 95 bridge opened in 1963, it seemed only natural to honor him.

Hatem was a little more diifficult to track down. All the Maryland Transportation Authority says is that he was a distinguished citizen of Harford County who devoted his life to public service. Google had little more to offer.

Fortunately, The Sun library and researcher Paul McCardell were up to the challenge. It turns out that Hatem was a longtime Harford County Democratic political figure who served a term in the House of Delegates, a stretch as a county commissioner, a stint as state insurance commisioner and six years on the Public Service Commission. When he died at  59 in 1985, the Susquehanna River Toll Bridge was 46 years old and hadn't been named for anyone. His many friends thought naming the bridge from Harford to Cecil County after him would be a fine tribute. The next year it became the Hatem Bridge.

Sun File Photo of the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge

Continue reading "Who is Thomas J. Hatem of bridge fame?" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

You can read more about this in The Sun tomorrow, but the Maryland Transportation Authority has found serious underwater deterioration on the bridges carrying Interstate 95 and U.S. 40 over the Susquehanna River.

The finding has forced the authority to put repairs to the bridges' foundations and pillars on a fast track for completion in the 2012-2013 time frame. The cost of underwater repairs at the two bridges is estimated at $53.3 million. The work includes measures to combat "scour," the erosion of the pillars as a result of the river's flow.

The authority says the bridges are safe to travel on but that the work needs to be done as quickly as possible to keep them safe. Engineering for the projects is under way.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

For an interesting take on the Maryland Transportation Authority's plans for toll rates on the Inter-county Connector, check out this article in Toll Road News.

For those unfamiliar with the online publication, Toll Road News is the  authoritative source for information on U.S. tolled transportation facilities. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, editor  Peter Samuel, knows the field as well as anyone in the country.

Samuel reports that the authority faithfully followed a consultant's report that suggested that toll rates be adopted with the goal of maximizing revenue. In general, Toll Road News finds that the tolls are high by national standards but not unreasonable given the cost of the project and the affluence of the communities it serves.

Whether the Maryland public will agree is highly questionable.

Previously, I had expressed doubt about the usefulness of public hearings on these toll rates, but having read this article I've changed my mind. It's clear the authority is exercising a considerable amount of discretion in proposing these rates and not just following market forces.  The off-peak rates of 20 cents a mile seem particularly aggressive.

So by all means, show up for the public  hearings  Beltsville Oct. 28 in Beltsville and Oct. 29 in Gaithersburg. Better yet, contact the authority and demand that a third hearing be scheduled in the Baltimore area. The decision to treat the ICC as a strictly local project is a disgrace.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

                                                                                          AP/1992

There comes a pointed reminder from the Southern Maryland Newspapers that Maryland has huges transportation needs outside the Baltimore and Washington areas.

The Harry W. Nice Bridge is perhaps the most out-of-the-way major bridge in Maryland. Many Baltimore and Washington residents can live their entire lives without crossing it. But if you live in Southern Maryland, it is a critical lifeline to the South -- crossing the Potomac from the southern end of Charles County to the Northern Neck of Virginia on U.S. 301.

It's a 70-year-old, two lane structure, and the last time I crossed it, the old span was showing its 70 years. The Maryland Transportation Authority, which owns and operates the bridge, is now studying various plans for a new, wider bridge. Cost estimates range up to $1 billion.

There are all kinds of projects clamoring for the authority's toll dollars and bond-issuing power, but this one richly deserves to be at the front of the line. Since this is infrastructure our great-grandchildren will likely  be using, it doesn't make sense to skimp when choosing alternatives.

By the way, even as narrow  and old as it  is, the Nice Bridge is a good route for Baltimore motorists seeking to avoid the truly horrendous holiday weekend traffic jams on Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia. A four-lane bridge would help uncork the existing bottleneck.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Traffic counts at state toll facilities this Labor Day weekend are expected to increase 3 percent over previous totals, the Maryland Transportation Authority predicts.

The authority is calculating the percentage increase based on 2008 figures for most toll facilities but 2007 totals for the Bay  Bridge, where repair work in the wake of a high-profile fatal crash skewed last year's totals.

The busiest facility, as usual, is expected to be the Fort McHenry Tunnel, with a projected 473,000 users. Close behind would be the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway (Interstate 95 northeast of Baltimore) with 467,000. The Bay Bridge,  with three fewer lanes than the eight-lane McHenry Tunnel, is expected to carry 366,000 vehicles.

The agency is warning of significant delays on the Bay Bridge. It advises that the best times to cross the bridge this weekend are:

Thursday: Before 3 p.m. and after 10 p.m.

Friday: Before noon and after 10 p.m.

Saturday: Before 7 a.m. and between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Sunday: Between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and after 10 p.m.

Monday: Before 11 a.m. and after 10 p.m.

Depending on your destination, starting point and expected congestion level at the bridge, it is also worth considering a route around the head of the bay. For residents of Baltimore and its northern suburbs, such a route can be faster than using the Bay Bridge and U.S. 50  -- especially when headed for the Delaware beaches.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

The Maryland Transportation Authority will close the westbound span of the Bay Bridge for deck replacement work four nights next week, requiring two-way operations on the two-lane eastbound span.

The agency announced that it would close the newer, three-lane westbound bridge Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays nights at 9. p.m. -- reopening at 5 a.m. the following mornings. On Saturday, the span will be closed at 10 p.m. and will reopen at 7 a.m. Sunday.

The westbound span will be the site of daytime work Wednesday when one lane will be closed between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. for maintenance.

The authority is urging motorists to slow down where steel plates are being used as part  of the bridge's surface. There may also be periodic lane closings of up to 30 minutes during off-peak hours as workers inspect those plates, the agency said.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Readers of this blog know I have no problem with thye Maryland Transportation Authority's deciision to impose a $1.50 a month E-ZPass account fee, but it's ridiculous when those who choose to close their accounts get the run-around. Here's a report from David Gosey of Towson on the troubles he's been having:

While EZ-Pass is good for some motorists, getting a refund from them is anything but EZ. On 6/22/2009 I both e-mailed and called EZ-Pass to try to close our account. I received a return e-mail confirming that, along with a request #. On 7/2/2009 I received another e-mail saying our request had been resolved and we would get the funds owed us once closure was completed (approximately 30 business days). According to their web site as of last Friday, our account is still open and they took out a $1.50 service charge fee on July1st. I called EZ-Pass earlier today and got a run-around. The lady at EZ-Pass told me the we would get the refund 30 business days from the 7/2 e-mail. When I said it was over 45 business days from when we asked them to close the account and well over 30 business days from 7/2, she said the same thing. 30 BUSINESS DAYS, as though I didn't hear her the first time. When I explained once again that it was well over 30 BUSINESS DAYS, she said there was a back-log, but we should get our money in 30 business days. I gave up and said goodbye. I would like to get the $46.80 due us before the State of Maryland decides that the state is in such bad shape that they will not be giving refunds. Or perhaps giving us an I.O.U., ala California. I know this is small potatoes in the over-all scheme of things but it must be a very large sum of money if they are holding out on all of the 5,000 people who tried to close their account. Thanks for letting me vent.

Continue reading "Toll agency fumbling E-ZPass refunds" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Because of bad weather, the Maryland Transportation Authority has called  off two-way operations on the Bay Bridge this evening, so there will only be two eastbound travels lanes.

When the weather permits, the authority usually opens one of the westbound lanes to eastbound traffic at times of peak travel. Congestion this evening could be made worse by the combination of rush hour commuting and travel to beach destinations.

If you live in the  Baltimore area, it would be wise to consider using a northern route around the head of the bay.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Next week is shaping up as a great one for avoiding the Bay Bridge.

Two-way travel will bedevil night travelers on the  bridge most of the week. On Tuesday night through Friday night, the westbound span will close at 10 p.m. and reopen the following morning. On Saturday night it will close at 11 p.m. and reopen at 7 a.m. Sunday.

That means two-way travel on the two lane eastbound span -- a daunting prospect when everyone on the bridge is awake  and sober and potentially deadly when they're not. I'm not faulting the Maryland Transportation Authority for allowing two-way operations under these circumstances. Maintenance work has to be done. But the authority could do a better job of encouraging all those who can to use the northern route around Elkton. For people coming from Baltimore, it's just as effective a way to get to and from many Delmarva destinations.

In choosing a route, it's wise to consider that all it takes is one bad driver to get you trapped on the bridge or its approaches for hours. A good example of that occurred last August, when a young woman who had been drinking fell asleep while driving on the bridge and set off a chain of events that cost a trucker his life and other motorists much of their day (results shown at left). It happened during  two-way operations on the eastbound span.

Meanwhile, the eastbound span will have closings of its own Sunday night and Monday morning for repairs to the bridge wall.

Sun photo

Continue reading "It's looking grim for the Bay Bridge next week" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

                                                                                           Sun photo/Lloyd Fox

A visit last week to the Maryland House, the venerable travel plaza along Interstate 95 near Aberdeen, brought back memories  of an October 2006 meeting there with Trent M. Kittleman.

Littleman, then executive secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority, outlined  ambitious plans to replace the vintage 1963 travel plaza and its younger Cecil County counterpart, the Chesapeake House.

But  here it is 2009, and there were few signs of change from three years before. Nor had I heard much mention of the project in recent years.

Authority spokewoman Teri Moss assured me this week that the project has not fallen by the wayside. She said the state is developing a solicitation for a contractor to design, build and operate the facilities. She said she expects the request for proposals (RFP) to hit the streets late this year or early in 2010.

"We were hoping to get the RFP out earlier, but this is a new concept for us," Moss wrote.  "We’ve been careful to come up with a document that would generate a great amount of interest and from the best companies – that would give us the most out of the proposals."

Moss said the authority hopes to have chosen a contractor and to have given it the green light to proceed by the end of next year.

To read the full 2006 article, click below.

Continue reading "Toll authority plods ahead with travel plaza project" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

One trip on Delaware Route 1 on a summer weekend was all it took to justify keeping E-ZPass despite the $1.50-a-month fee Marylanders now have to pay for the privilege.

The Delaware highway, a toll road for most of the stretch between Interstate 95 and the south side of Dover, is equipped with toll collection devices that let you fly  by in the E-ZPass lanes without slowing down.

Meanwhile, last Saturday, there were backups at two cash toll plazas of a half-mile or more. For the record, traffic slows to a crawl on beach weekends on the part of Delaware 1 that is non-toll between Dover Air Force Base and the U.S. 113 split.  After  the split, Route 1 returned to normal highway speeds until hitting the outskirts of Lewes. Even with the backup, we found it a highly viable alternative to the Bay Bridge for a trip from Parkville to Rehoboth Beach.  With E-ZPass, of course.

The return trip Monday evening took about 2 1/2 hours, with one stop for gas.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

                                                                                  AP Photo

Collapsed overpass blocks Interstate  75 after tanker fire brought it down outside Detroit.

We tend to think of our highway infrastructure as being permanent and impervious to the idiocy of the people that use it, but an incident that took place near Detroit Wednesday shows just how vulnerable it could be.

In that crash, an overpass on Interstate 75 collapsed after a  three-vehicle crash involving a tanker truct, a tractor-trailer and a passenger car. It seems the 27-year-old driver of the car lost control of the vehicle while going about 70 mph on a curve with a speed limit of 50 mph. According to news reports, thhe vehicle swerve into a tanker and broke the connection between the cab and trailer to come apart. The fuel in the tanker caught fire and the bridge was soon history.

The incident reminded me of a well-known local bridge with a pronounced curve where drivers are often inclined to race across at speeds of 70 mph or  more. If you guessed the Bay Bridge, you're on the money.

I asked Lesli Leath, a  spokeswoman for the Maryland Transortation Authority, if there were any restrictions on fuel trucks on the Bay Bridge or other toll bridges in the state. The answer: No. (There are restrictions on bringing hazardous cargo throough the harbor tunnels.)

Certainly the chances of a catastrophic crash severely damaging a bridge are extremely small, but it would be worth examining whether its makes sense to take the slightest chance with the Bay Bridge in particular. It's arguably Maryland's most valuable transportation asset, and the disruption that would folllow from long-term damage to either span would be enormous.

The northern routes around the top of the bay are now far more robust than they were  in decades past. Wouldn't it make sense to route fuel trucks up that way? Or at least require police escorts, as the authority does now for high-grade explosives and radioactive material. At least these are policies the authority board should consider. Let the engineers war-game some worst-case scenarios and examine what the consequences would be.

It would also be refreshing if the board were to grow a spine and  ask the General Assembly to authorize the use of speed cameras on its bridges and in its tunnels. I've also long advocated enhanced fines for traffic violations at these facilities. It's a  matter of protecting the crown jewels of Maryland transportation. That's all the rationale that's needed.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Continue reading "E-ZPass subsidy lingered too long" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Every once and a while the Getting There blog will host opposing views -- just for the fun of it. No views could be more opposed than Sen. E. J. Pipkin, a Republican who represents the Upper Eastern Shore. He copied me on a letter to the editor he's been circulating in response to the July 1 effective date of a new $1.50-a-month fee on E-ZPass accounts, as well as other revenue-raiising measures to make up a $60 million revenue shortfall at the Maryland Transportation Authority.

The good senator can have the rest of this blog post to himself. Those who want to read a response will have to wait for a few  days while I sharpen my pen.

FATTENING THE CASH COW – MAKING BAY BRIDGE E-Z PASS USERS PAY MORE

Dear Sir,

In January, when the MdTA announced that it would impose higher fees and new costs on Bay Bridge commuters who use E-ZPass customers, I voiced my objections.   Starved as the State is for revenue, I did not really expect the State to retreat from grabbing $60 million from Marylanders.  In this instance, it would be Marylanders who use the Bay Bridge and other state toll facilities.

The Bay Bridge has always been a cash cow for the MdTA’s highway projects.  The Bridge raises over $30 million in toll revenue each year and costs less than $8 to operate. 

On July 1, the new fees and costs became effective.  E-ZPass users will now have to pay for transponders, more for toll violations and a new charge of $1.50 a month to cover some of the costs of processing the program.  According to then-Secretary of Transportation, John Porcari, the new charges would help recover costs and maintenance of the state’s toll facilities.   Pocari said that he was taking this action “reluctantly” and called it a “last resort.”

As I see it, the State of Maryland has never shied away from bleeding its citizens with new and inventive taxes and fees.  That it does so, in this faltering economy, is unconscionable.

Maryland, like all other states, has been pushing people to use electronic toll collections, which expedite the flow of traffic.   Making the cost of using electronic toll collections higher and adding fees makes no sense.  It is counter-productive. Those higher costs and that additional monthly $1.50 fee could push people and commercial users away from electronic toll collections.   Let’s face it, toll facility users could very well decide to not to use E-ZPass.

It is the worst type of folly for government to grab the money and run without giving significant weight to negative unintended consequences.   In its eagerness to grab the $60 million, the State could be stymieing or sabotaging Maryland’s transportation progress.  The purpose of E-ZPass is to alleviate traffic congestion. Bay Bridge traffic increases between 2% and 3% each year. If the higher cost of using
E-ZPass reduces the number of users, Maryland will have taken an unfortunate step backward from transportation progress.

Sincerely,

E.J. Pipkin

Posted by Michael Dresser at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

Photo by Daniel Hulzhiser/2003

Despite customer anger over a new $1.50-a-month fee on E-ZPass accounts that just took effect, Maryland will begin July with more subscribers to the electronic toll collection service than it had on Jan. 1, a top official said Tuesday.

 Randy Brown, operations director of the Maryland Transportation Authority, said that a loss of about 19,000 subscribers who have dropped their accounts since the beginning of the year has been more than offset by a gain of 27,000 new customers.

 Brown said he expects to have about 544,000 E-ZPass account holders Wednesday — the first day the new fee was in effect — compared with about 535,000 on Jan. 1. That represents a slowing of the rate of growth in recent years, but not the reversal many customers predicted.

Brown said there had been a flurry of about 11,000 cancellations over the past two weeks after notices went out in the mail about the monthly fee and a new $21 charge for new or replacement transponders. The charges, along with a series of toll increases affecting mostly truckers, were announced shortly after New Year’s and formally adopted by the authority’s board in late January.

Authority officials said they proposed the revenue package to raise $60 million to fill a budget gap left by a decline in toll collections. The officials said they decided to impose the fee in order recover a portion of the cost of keeping an account open and billing customers.

Continue reading "Fee slows, but doesn't stop, E-ZPass growth" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

AAA Mid-Atlantic put out a press release that does a good job of explaining the Maryland Transportation Authority's new fees and toll increases that take effect Wednesday. Unfortunately it goes on to blow a little smoke concerning its role.

AAA was actually late to the fight over the $1.50-a-month E-ZPass fee that has so many folks upset. It originally  supported the revenue package. It was AWOL at the meeting of the transportation authority board where the new  charges  were actually voted upon. It only started expressing opposition after hearing from members.

In today's release, it bloviates about its petition  effort to get Gov. Martin O'Malley to overturn the board's action. As AAA knows very well, the governor does not have that power.

 AAA spokeswoman Ragina Averella explained that what the AAA meant to say was that it wanted O'Malley to persuade the board to rescind. The problem is, that would be perceived as political pressure. And for the board to be seen as bowing to such pressure carries a big risk.

 You see, the bond market, and bond rating agencies, value the independence of a toll authority's board -- knowing that necessary toll increases will never be popular with elected  officials. If a governor or legislature started to monkey with the actions of an independent board to score political points, the bond rating agencies could decide a downgrade was in order. The increased cost of the authority's borrowing could set back its maintenance efforts for years.

AAA is usually a trusted source of information and a responsible advocate on behalf of motorists. In this case, it put pandering to the masses over the need  to maintain its  credibility.

By the way, authority operations director Randy Brown tells me that Maryland expects to begin July  with more E-ZPass  subscribers than it did on Jan. 1. While about  19,000 subscribers have dropped their accounts, about 27,000 people have opened new accounts. The rate of growth has been slowed but hardly stopped.

Brown also told me that more than 72,000 of the authoriity's 500,000 accounts  as of Jan. 1 hadn't used their transponders in the previous 12 months. He said Maryland -- meaning fellow ratepayers -- paid $1.9 million to keep their accounts open.

"It's going to be a good business move to have customers who don't use their account to close  it," he said.

His statement may not be "sensitive" but it is correct.

Here's the AAA release:

Continue reading "AAA blows smoke on E-ZPass fees" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities, On the roads
        

If you've been meaning to cancel your E-ZPass account with the Maryland Transportation Authority but just haven't gotten around to it because of the $1.50-a-month fee approved early this year, today is your last chance to do so without paying the charge. The fee, along with a $21 charge for new and replacement transponders, takes effect July 1.

The authority's board adopted the charges, as well as a series of toll increases on trucks, in order to make up for a revenue shortfall and to begin recovering the administrative costs of the E-ZPass program.

For some infrequent users, canceling E-ZPass could make economic sense. At the same time, it makes economic sense for the authority to bid them farewell because they've been costing the state money. As it stands, an account holder has to pay about $25 in tolls each year before the authority makes a dime off their business.

You  should make every effort to act NOW if you fall in that group that has multiple transponders on multiple accounts. You should get to an authority office ASAP and consolidate transponders onto a single account. Make sure the account you close is the one with the oldest transponder. You would get a new transponder free today that would cost you $21 tomorrow.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

The Maryland Transportation Authority is planning a series of overnight  and midday closings next week for work on the Bay Bridge.

I'll let the folks from the toll authority explain.

Continue reading "Closings coming to Bay Bridge" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

The experts’ panel assembled after last August’s crash in which a truck plunged through a barrier wall and off the Bay Bridge turned in its report to the board of the Maryland Transportation Authority Wednesday, and it appears the agency has received a relatively clean bill of health.

Among other things, the panel recommended that the authority beef up its procedures for inspecting the state’s toll bridges and tunnels and open the process to more scrutiny from the public. But the panel, made up of seven top transportation engineers from around the country, rejected contentions that the authority should commission an independent inspection of the Bay Bridge. It found that reforms adopted in recent years rotate inspections among different teams, ensuring that different sets of eyes view any problems on the structure.

The panel was set up by Gov. Martin O’Malley after a fatal tractor-trailer crash on the Bay Bridge led to the discovery Aug. 10 that the metal devices that hold in place the Jersey barriers that make up the eastbound span’s wall had been weakened by corrosion. That finding led to weeks of lane-closings and traffic backups as work crews made emergency repairs.

In its report, the peer review panel made no findings of serious lapses by the authority.

"They’ve been doing an adequate job. They meet with federal requirements but like most organizations they can improve their program," said Mary Lou Ralls, a consulting firm executive and former Texas Department of Transportation engineer who chaired the panel.

MY TAKE: This agency was desperately  in need of an overhaul in 2004, when it  had to redo millions of dollars worth of work on the surface of the westbound Bay Bridge. But when that bungle was exposed, then-Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan set a reform process in motion that  continued under his successor, John D. Porcari. The panel found many of  the needed changes to the inspection process are already  in the works.

If anyone wants to wade through 90 or so pages of highly technical stuff, the full report can be found here. 

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland toll facilities
        

 Sun photo

The family of the truck driver who was killed last August when his tractor-trailer crashed through the side of the Bay Bridge filed a $7 million lawsuit Tuesday against the young woman whose vehicle was found to have crossed the center line and to have set off the chain of events that led to the fatal plunge.

The widow, children and father of truc ker John R. Short Sr. allege that Candy Lynn Baldwin, who was 19 at the time of the crash, had been drinking illegally before attempting to drive from Baltimore to the Eastern Shore early in the morning of August 10.

Continue reading "Trucker's family sues driver in Bay Bridge plunge" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Maryland Transportation Authority will hold two public meetings this month to answer questions and receive comments on the placement of a new toll plaza along Interstate 95 in Cecil County.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)