Website Development & Hosting Provided by GTI Technology Consultants. For questions related to this site's design, hosting, links or navigation please email mikep@gtechinc.com

David R. Brinkley, Maryland State Delegate.

January 18, 2001 - The Gazette (MD)

State to pay for new interchange at Routes 15, 26

by Sherry Greenfield
Staff Writer Jan. 18, 2001

Dean Geiser/The Gazette
A new interchange at Routes 15 and 26 has been included in the state's Consolidated Transportation Program for the next six years.

Residents opposed to a proposed bypass of Main Street in Middletown are happy construction of the road has been left out of the state's Consolidated Transportation Program.

"For the time being, we're pleased," said Middletown resident Ken Shearin. "I doubt seriously the reason it was left out was because of our opposition. I doubt the state would have funded both Routes 15 and 26 and the bypass."

Instead, a new interchange at Routes 15 and 26 and the extension of Thomas Johnson Drive in Frederick will be included in the state's program for the next six years.

The CTP includes $340 million for road projects in Frederick. Of that, $129 million is for highway improvements, $121 million for transit services and nearly $90 million for other road projects.

The budget also includes $22.9 million for interchange improvements at Routes 355 and 85 extended.

Gov. Parris Glendening (D) also added $1.5 billion in statewide Smart Growth, transit, safety and aviation projects to the CTP, bringing Maryland's capital transportation budget to more than $9.4 billion.

The announcement of Frederick's road improvement funding came last Thursday from Del. C. Sue Hecht (D-Dist. 3) of Frederick, after she and County Commissioner Jan Gardner (D) met with Glendening. Hecht and Gardner are the only two Democrats elected to office by Frederick County voters.

Hecht said a petition, initiated by Shearin and signed by 72 residents who live immediately south of Middletown, helped to persuade the governor and the Maryland Department of Transportation not to include the bypass in the CTP.

"So many parts of the Middletown bypass have questions," Hecht said. "The state took the project with the least amount of questions and said they are ready to go."

Also known as the Middletown parkway, the bypass was designed as a loop south of the town, connecting to Alt. Route 40 east and west of town limits.

Shearin and resident Bill Bennett, both of whom live south of the town and west of Route 17 in the neighborhood known as Countryside, say before they will support a bypass, the state must conduct a more comprehensive study of the entire Middletown region.

The bypass would cut directly through their neighborhood.

"We want to see a project plan that addresses the traffic needs of the whole Middletown region," Bennett said.

"We're against the project as it is currently defined, and we're in favor of a bypass from the existing Route 70 interchange to west of Middletown," Shearin said.

He and Bennett have agreed to meet with Middletown Burgess William Thompson to discuss their concerns.

Thompson has lobbied actively for a bypass in his town, but is not surprised the project was not included in the CTP. "Yes, I was disappointed, but not surprised," Thompson said. "All it takes is a complaint from one citizen."

But Thompson has no plans to drop his fight.

"I'm not going to give up on it, and I'm sure nobody in Middletown will give up," he said. "We'll look at the old studies that have been done, and work to get some attention for a northern bypass that involves a new interchange at Route 70. But my allegiance is to my taxpayers, and one disappointment is not the end."

Former Middletown burgess Del. Louise Snodgrass (R-Dist. 3) of Middletown also was not surprised the project was left out of the state's plans.

"I do applaud Middletown," she said. "This is the closest they have ever come to getting the project included."

After being passed up several times over 30 years, the project finally had made it to the top of the Frederick Board of County Commissioner's secondary road priority list. Usually, that designation leads to state funding. But this year, in an unprecedented move, county commissioners added a primary road priority list, with the interchange at Routes 15 and 26 as its top project.

Hecht and Gardner say their goal is to get one project a year included in the CTP.

Hecht is thrilled with the prospect of a new interchange at Routes 15 and 26. "It's an absolutely wonderful success for us," she said. "It's wonderful not only because it will clean up that intersection, but it was taken out of the Multi-Modal Corridor Study."

Since 1994, the Maryland State Highway Administration and Federal Mass Transit Administration have been conducting an Interstate 270/Route 15 Multi-Modal Corridor Study on a 28-mile stretch of the highway from Biggs Ford Road in Frederick to Shady Grove Road in Montgomery County. The study team has been looking at options to relieve congestion and traffic in that area.

Glendening credits the work of Hecht and Gardner to convince him of the importance of including this project in the CTP.

"It is critical that we keep the momentum going to improve transportation in the Frederick area," Glendening said. "Thanks to the leadership and commitment of Del. Sue Hecht and Commissioner Jan Gardner, the citizens of Frederick are seeing changes now that will better serve the community into the future."

Project planning for the construction of the new interchange will begin in 2002, at about $600,000. The state, county and Frederick City are each contributing $200,000 toward the project.

Glendening also said a new Potomac River crossing will be needed, but the environment must be safeguarded and sprawl prevented.

"It ought not tear right into the heart of the [agricultural preserve] in Montgomery County," he said.

State officials have long considered the Point of Rocks in Frederick County as the most logical location for a new bridge crossing, but a new $2 million federal study will also examine other options for a bridge west of the Capital Beltway.

Del. David Brinkley (R-Dist. 4A) of New Market also criticized both the lack of new spending for roads for Frederick County and the governor's emphasis on mass transit spending.

"It's a very big concern," he said. "So much of our gas tax money is siphoned off into mass transit."

Brinkley also said it is not realistic for a county like Frederick to make transit the transportation mode of choice.

Staff writer Steven T. Dennis contributed to this story.

Return to List of Articles

Authority: Friends of David R. Brinkley - Sallie M. Brinkley, Treasurer