If we’ve learned one thing from the effort to extend the Orange Line through Tyson’s to Dulles Airport, it’s that two billion and change can buy you a pretty substantial amount of rail transit. Or, if you please, it can buy you 18 miles of road.
The Inter-County Connector passed its final hurdle today, receiving official federal government approval and allowing construction to begin on the highway in the fall. The road will travel from I-270 near Gaithersburg in the west to I-95 near Beltsville in the east (well south of several of the proposed eastern rendezvous), at about ten miles north of the Capital Beltway. The planned path takes it across northern Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, through relatively undeveloped land (though 58 homes will meet the ‘dozer during the building process).
Approval of the contentious project turns common knowledge about regional transit on its head. Ask your average Washingtonian about the relative progressivity of the suburban states on transportation, and you’re likely to hear about Virginia’s struggles to find funding for road maintenance and new rail lines. At present, however, the Orange Line extension seems like a sure thing, and Arlington County is actively working to place streetcars in neglected transit corridors. Across the border, Prince George’s County is building the hulking National Harbor development well away from transit hubs, while the ICC seems sure to extend Maryland’s already considerable sprawl outward, just as old inner-suburbs like Silver Spring appear ready to boom. Maryland has made recent noise about extending Metro to BWI and connecting WMATA with Baltimore’s transit system. Certainly $2.4 billion could have increased the probability of that occurring sometime in the next 30 years.
But every state has its priorities, and for many who reside in Maryland, enhancing the connectedness of the D.C. area’s economic power with the rest of the state, and especially Baltimore, is a top priority. Perhaps this project will achieve that by helping to funnel residents along the I-270 corridor toward the eastern metropolitan area and the city to our north. We’re inclined to believe this is major missed opportunity for smarter growth in the region.
Picture taken by andertho.
