Fairfax Supervisors should take action on I-495 backups with data

Testimony before Fairfax Board of Supervisors April 18, 2024, regarding backups on I-495 due to Maryland not moving fast on replacing and expanding the Legion Bridge

I am Ken Reid have been involved in transportation advocacy since the late 1990s when I lived in Montgomery Couty MD including improving cross Potomac Rive capacity, and I served 10 years in local elected office in Loudoun. I currently live in Tysons.

I am here today to ask the Board to put some money in your FY 25 budget to hire a good modeler who can gauge the impact of Maryland’s delays in widening and replacing the Legion Bridge, and what this means for neighborhood streets and other roads in Fairfax County.

Funds also should go toward doing a “big data” analysis of origination and destination data to determine if traffic on 495 is being diverted to other roads – and this investigation should NOT be limited to streets and roads near the Legion Bridge, like in Great Falls, McLean and Tysons, but you should examine the impact in Reston, Vienna and on the Wilson Bridge areas on the southern side of the Beltway.

If you already have the internal capability to do this kind of work, or VDOT or the COG TPB Staff can do it, and demonstrate to the powers that be in Richmond and Annapolis of the dire need to not delay the 270/495 project further, or if you have funds in the FY 24 budget, then please proceed – and that means, you should not raise property taxes by 7 percent 😊

I would like to note that I am not employed by any firms that do this work. I am here solely a citizen and voter.

Here is why I believe this analysis will be helpful:

For hypothetical purposes let’s say a motorist is in the Reston area and wants to go to Baltimore around 3 pm on a Friday. If he or she puts this route in their Google Maps, chances are you will be given 2 options – use the Legion Bridge to I 95, which is 1 hour to 3 hours, or go up Route 7 to the Leesburg 15 Bypass and Point of rocks bridge – same time, and probably less stop and go.

In other words, the travel time is equivalent and if you check the Google map, you will see that there is less stop-and-go congestion traversing through Fairfax and Loudoun counties than taking 495 to 95.

I’m pointing this out for this reason – the backups on 495 in Tysons where I live are going back as far as Route 50 and Gallows Road. And it’s only going to get worse.

Although VDOT is scheduled to complete its portion of the 495 express toll lanes to the Legion Bridge (NEXT), they can only open the lanes to GW Parkway because Maryland is stuck in the mud on what to do with the Legion Bridge, although former Gov. Hogan had plans in place and approved by U.S. DOT to use express toll lanes to finance replacement and widening of the Legion Bridge, 495 to the 270 split in North Bethesda. Shovels would have been in the ground last year had Trans-Urban, which won the concession, not backed out due to Moore’s delays in trying to figure out what to do with the project.

I see you sent a letter to VDOT Secretary Shep Miller in February and I applaud you for that. However, I did not see whether you got a response and – and it’s already April.

But at a recent , VDOT information hearing on 495 NEXT in McLean, officials really had no good answers. Their hands are tied by Maryland.

Furthermore, Maryland DOT official Jeff Foulden, who is the project manager for the 495/270 project, told the gathering at Langley H.S. that the Frances Scott Key Bridge replacement is now Maryland’s priority. There were a lot of “ugghs” in the audience. So, Gov. Wes Moore has put the Legion Bridge on the backburner

I do not see how the feds are going to be able to fund TWO bridges if Maryland wants 100% replacement cost for the Key Bridge, unless Congress says otherwise.

Before it collapsed a few weeks ago, The Frances Scott Key Bridge was carrying only 30,000 to 34,000 vehicles a day, but the Legion Bridge is carrying 230,000 a day and that is projected to hit 280,000 in just 15 years! The Legion bridge itself needs to be replaced within 15 years. Replaced!

What will happen to our County’s neighborhood streets and other roads in the meantime while Maryland fiddles on this issue?

Environmental activists and NIMBYs in Montgomery County, perhaps supported by County Executive Marc Elrich, who long opposed Hogan’s project, have worked behind the scenes to slow this down - and much of the MDOT leadership in Moore’s Administration are folks who support transit, not roads.

I would like to add that the Baltimore tunnels are doing an admirable job handling the FS Key Bridge traffic and hazmat and big trucks, which cannot use the tunnels, are making do going the other way on the 695 Baltimore Beltway. (See graphic page 4). Data show fewer than 15% (3,500 vehicles) on the FS Key Bridge were such trucks.

We, in Fairfax County, and folks in Montgomery, have NO alternatives to the Legion Bridge, except U.S. 15 at Point of Rocks, Chain Bridge and the Roosevelt and Wilson Bridges. Not good!

In addition, there are two lanes on the Wilson Bridge that were built with the idea of them being used for mass transit. Maryland, which controls the river and thus the Wilson, has done nothing with these lanes, so VDOT is leading a study on it (South Beltway Study

I believe these lanes on the Wilson should be opened very soon to general-purpose traffic on an interim basis and until the Legion Bridge is replaced. If and when Secretary Miller gets back to you, perhaps you can press him on getting the South Beltway Study expedited so these Wilson Bridge lanes can be opened. I also believe the Beltway HOT lanes should open to HOV-2 traffic at a discounted rate from SOV in the interim, which will require a change of rules by COG’s Air Quality Committee.

The only thing VDOT has planned to deal with the congestion at the Legion Bridge is a bus from Bethesda to Tysons This bus will NOT provide much congestion relief for the 230,000 cars, trucks and other vehicles that are sluggishly trying to get over the Legion Bridge each day.

Such a bus existed when I lived in Montgomery County and it was taken out of service in 2003 because it was not used much.

In my view, this bus is a fig leaf to cover for politicians who can tell angry constituents: “Don’t worry about the Beltway and 270 – there’s a new bus to Tysons!”

Besides funding this modeling/data analysis – which could cost an estimated $150,000 -I also recommend getting our state senators and delegates engaged, and Sens. Warner, Kaine and Congressman Connolly – and Gov. Youngkin – who from what I learned at the Langley HS Meeting didn’t even talk to Wes Moore about this when he came into office in early 2023.

In addition, all of you interface with Montgomery County elected officials in COG committees and I suggest you have a conversation with them about this as their constituents are dealing with worst even worst congestion on I-270 and I-495.

Perhaps they can get funding for the Legion Bridge project through the bill just introduced in congress by Maryland members to fully fund the Key Bridge construction, S. 4114.

Thank you for your time.

Ken Reid