The Chesapeake Bay Bridge: One of many Maryland transportation projects in the works (2024)

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to state that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge now carries over 27 million total vehicles per year.

Maryland is facing a future of financial straits when it comes to funding transportation projects. For those concerned with crossing those straits and about promised projects yet to be completed, the inspiration of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, undergoing potential updates of its own, stands tall as an example.

The 350-foot plus bridge, first opened in 1952, changed life for those in the state, opening not just roads between the Western and Eastern Shores, but avenues of opportunity for those previously stranded on one side or the other of Maryland before the structure was built.

A page on the Maryland Transportation Authority website calls the bridge “a dream in 1908, a financial impossibility in 1929 and a war-postponed plan in 1940,” and gives credit to the leadership of Gov. William Preston Lane Jr., for whom the bridge has since been named.

Now, that same project is in a second round of study for whether there needs to be new construction in the 22-mile-long, two-mile-wide corridor that includes the existing Bay Bridge.

“We are continuing efforts for public involvement,” Melissa Williams, director of planning and program developmentat the Maryland Transportation Authority, told the House Environment and Transportation Committee during a Jan. 24 briefing. She noted a public meeting to be held later this year where potential alternatives would be shown, including a No Build Alternative.

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‘Transportation capital projects can take decades,’ Lt. Gov. says

“We’ll be actually showing them potential alignments, potential crossings,” Williams said. But don’t expect the 20^th century bridge to be built or replaced at the speed of 21^st century social media.

The feedback from the public input would be considered, and an Authority recommended preferred alternative would be selected. Still, even after that, a green light for construction would be more of a flashing yellow.

“Then again,” Williams told the committee during the Maryland Department of Transportation Major Projects Briefing, “once we have a recommendation, we would be taking that to the public again for the public to weigh in, and give input on that actual single preferred alternative prior to the finalization.”

She pointed to the process’ website: https://www.baycrossingstudy.com/ and a potential study end date of winter 2026. The approximately four-mile bridge, which when it opened was the world’s largest continuous over-water steel structure and now carries over 27 million total vehicles per year, will mark its 75^th year in 2027. It has lasted, but finishing isn’t always easy.

“Transportation capital projects can take decades,” said Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, in a Jan. 17 interview in her office. Miller, a transportation engineer by trade, described a “very complex process” for projects, including what she called “checks and balances” of permitting and regulations.

“I wish we could make it more simple,” she said, “I know we’re looking to see what we can do.”

She also mentioned her own experience with the political element of projects that can sometimes derail a plan, describing spending 15 years on a project in Montgomery County only before it was nixed by an elected official. “It’s sitting on a shelf collecting dust right now,” said Miller, of that project.

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‘We need to creatively meet the moment,’ delegate says

For some members of the General Assembly, including the Washington County delegation who had money pledged on a project to widen I-81 last year, construction cannot come soon enough.

“When we talk about the goals of the Vision Zero program, I’m paying attention to some of the projects that have been delayed in the governor’s budget,” said Del. M. Courtney Watson, D-Howard, referencing the state’s initiative to reduce motor vehicle-related fatalities to zero.

Watson, the chair of the House Appropriations Transportation & the Environment subcommittee, gave the example of I-81 to Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld, during the Jan. 24 House Environment and Transportation Committee briefing.

The state’s six-year plan calls for widening the road from four to six lanes total, for a stretch of about 4 miles from MD 63/MD 68 to the CSX railroad bridges north of Halfway Boulevard, which is an area in Washington County with the construction of new warehouses and has over 19,000 trucks on the road daily. The plan said construction funding has been reduced this year by $89.6 million, a similar amount to the funds that came through with federal support last year.

Chair of the Washington County delegation William Wivell, R-Washington/Frederick, expressed his hope that the money could be restored during a Jan. 25 county delegation meeting.

“As we looked into the numbers, it’s $15 million state money and the rest was basically federal money,” he said, “Hopefully, that (restoration) can happen and be part of one of the supplemental budgets.”

The delegation vice chair Terry Baker, R-Allegany/Washington, told the Maryland Department of Transportation officials during the Jan. 24 briefing that constituents in Western Maryland indicated defunding I-81 was “unacceptable” and requested a community meeting with officials.

“How do we go about getting a public meeting sooner rather than later from your department in our community so that our community has the opportunity to ask you questions?” Baker said. After the delegation met the next day, he said he had not yet heard specifics about a meeting.

The county was not the only jurisdiction in the state looking to meet with department officials, either.

“For, too long, Baltimore’s transit riders have made-do with inadequate transit infrastructure,” said Del. Stephanie Smith, Baltimore City House delegation chair, in a release announcing a Jan. 27 event on envisioning the area’s transportation future. “We need to creatively meet the moment and not simply celebrate well-meaning half measures.”

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Those who built the Chesapeake Bay Bridge knew “half measures” were not enough. A second span, taking traffic in the westbound direction, opened in 1973, coming about two decades after the first.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.