Reply to Md. Gov. Hogan lists new Legion Bridge, maglev as priorities

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A new Legion bridge?  How about a new crossing entirely?   Why do we have basically a single point of failure?    They should find a way to expand the ICC to Route 28 in NoVa.

If they are concerned about sprawl, cost, & environmental issues.  Limit the exits on the new road and make it a toll road with incentives for carpoolers like the express lanes in Va for HOV-3 cars.
.[/quote]

A study was done a few years ago. Most of the traffic across the river is along the beltway.   Lower MoCo and PG to Tysons.   Upper MoCo to Tysons.  Lower MoCo to Reston, etc.

There is really not that much demand for upper MoCo to points west of Tysons.  So there is not much advantage to an outer crossing, over improving and expanding ALB.

Plus there is the threat of sprawl (and limits on exits have historically not worked).  And the direct impact of a new highway on the Ag Reserve, and on landowners in the highway path in NoVa.

In fact the current govt of the Commonwealth opposes an outer crossing.  AFAICT Fairfax County opposes an outer crossing.

An ALB expansion could easily include HOT lanes, which would serve express buses to Tysons (they could also leverage the HOV lanes on 270, and the proposed MoCo BRT network) [/quote]

That makes sense right now as that is where much of the population is, but NoVa is growing out that way and there are a lot of tech jobs, not to mention the rest of central MD.  200/ICC is already there and Route 28 is being upgraded and both are busy.  I guaranteed if they were connected people would use it, especially as an alternative to 495.  Especially traffic coming from Baltimore, PG, HoCo, and Anne Arundel would use it to get to Dulles.  Right now I use the ICC as an alternative to the beltway during rush hour to get to Gaithersburg.

The ALB expansion doesn't address the single point of failure problem.  What happens if God forbid something happen to that bridge the area would be SOL.  It can happen, look what is going on with I-85 in the Atlanta area now but in their situation they are lucky and don't have any major river crossings.

How would limited exits not work?  If there is no way to get on the highway why would developers build there?  Also if you have a strict land use plan (like MoCo does with the agricultural reserve) and stick with the plan and not allow developers to develop it why again would sprawl be a problem?  The whole sprawl because we build a highway argument doesn't make sense to me, because that really comes down to ultimately land use policies and zoning.  Also the argument that it would cause more pollution doesn't hold much water.  People are going to drive regardless even with mass transit options, but I would argue that cars idling in traffic (like what is happening now at that the ALB) is worse for the environment than having an optional new crossing.[/quote]

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