Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Friday committed Maryland to the next step in building a new crossing of the Chesapeake Bay, announcing he’s using federal infrastructure cash to launch a costly study of expanding capacity at the existing Bay Bridge site.
With term-limited Hogan leaving office in January, the governor’s decision launches an expensive transportation project for his successor to continue or decide to abandon.
The study will take four to five years and recommend whether to add a third span, a tunnel, a ferry or something else to the existing spans of the bridge, which see hours-long backups during summer months.
The $28 million study could recommend building an entirely new structure in the same location and will also evaluate what happens to traffic and the environment if the state did nothing at all.
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“It’s going to look at everything,” Hogan said at a waterfront news conference in Queen Anne’s County, the hum of bridge traffic behind him. “We have heard loud and clear that taking the next step is a priority for everyone in Maryland.”
Some local leaders, Republicans like Hogan, joined the governor to cheerlead moving forward with the project, which is a top priority of some counties that flank the bridge.
“It’s a great day in Queen Anne’s County,” said Queen Anne’s Commissioner Jim Moran (R-At Large), calling the bridge “the lifeline for the Eastern Shore.”
Hogan launched a process to replace the bridge in 2016. The newest span was opened in the 1970s, and weekend beach traffic swamps arterial roads on either side of the bridge, often trapping residents in their neighborhoods.
The new study will address that, too, recommending a solution for a mile north and south of the U.S. 50 highway along a 22-mile corridor from the Severn River Bridge in the west to the U.S. 50/301 in the east.
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The state does not have a plan to pay for design and construction of a new crossing, which is estimated by the state to cost between $5.4 billion and $8.9 billion in 2020 dollars.
In April, the federal government approved Maryland’s plan to alleviate traffic at the bridge by adding another crossing there — the shortest distance between the eastern and western shores — rather than at more than a dozen other potential locations. The Federal Highway Administration issued a “record of decision” endorsing the Maryland Transportation Authority’s plan, a key approval required to receive federal construction funding.
But it was not clear then whether Maryland had the money or the political support to move to the next phase of the project, the Tier 2 National Environmental Policy Act study that Hogan announced Friday.
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Efforts to fix the notorious traffic congestion are complicated, given that policymakers do not want to put development pressure on Eastern Shore farmland or damage the environmentally sensitive areas near the bay.
The bridge carries about 118,600 vehicles daily on summer weekends and about 68,600 on non-summer weekdays, according to the state.
Asked whether he hoped his successors would name the bridge after him, Hogan responded, “I’ll let someone else make that decision for me. They may name a port-a-potty after me, I don’t know.”
Katie Shaver contributed to this report.
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