Frederick County Maryland commissioners propose local tolling powers

The major news radio station in the Washington DC area WTOP has been running a report today which leads off: "The City of Frederick wants the federal government to give them the ability to collect toll revenue on Interstate 270."

The mayor's spokesman at City Hall (one block away from our office) Ron Tobin told us: "No, no, no, we're not the guilty ones. No toll booths being ordered here. Not us. Try the county."

Frederick County commissioners have indeed adopted a toll policy but it isn't limited to I-270.

The five commissioners endorsed a proposal recommending that the Maryland legislative assembly give local governments - counties and cities - the power to impose tolls on any major roads located within their jurisdiction including interstates.

The policy was adopted earlier this week and state legislators were briefed on it on Thursday. US Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has promised to have her staff investigate the proposal.

Local news reports end with the backgrounding that no city or county in the US has toll roads.

Tell that to the Harris County Texas, Orange County California, Laredo Texas, the counties and cities east of Colorado, Broomfield CO, San Diego Association of Governments, City of Chesapeake VA, Lee County Florida, Orlando FL, Miami Dade, Tampa and many others. They must in total be collecting more than a billion dollars a year in toll revenues.

Officials in Frederick County aren't necessarily pro-toll, although one commissioner John Lennie Thompson is a big enthusiast for tolls. But they are deeply frustrated with the lack of funds coming from the state and federal governments for highways going through the county, and see a statement of willingness to impose tolls themselves as a way of dramatizing the situation.

Crossroads city

Frederick is a crossroads city and much of the traffic on the highways here is passing through between the the Washington DC metro area to the southeast, northern Virginia to the southwest, Baltimore to the east, central Pennsylvania to the north and routes the west. The best passes through the Appalachians from Baltimore and Washington are immediately west of Frederick, so the roads to Pittsburgh and Chicago have always gone this way.

I-270 between Frederick and Clarksburg and I-70 through Frederick have some of the highest volumes per travel lane in the state. The state is already studying toll lanes on I-270, but there are many other needs. Next in priority is an upgrade of US15 North the expressway extension of I-270 toward Gettysburg and Harrisburg PA. US15 South to northern Virginia via Point of Rocks is a seized up 2 lane road. US15 within Frederick itself is mainly a local distributor with a limited right of way to widen beyond 3+3 lanes. A new highway I-270 Urbana to US15 north of Frederick and located on the east side of Frederick is being advocated to improve north-south mobility. We've called this the Frederick East Relief Road (FERR) though Jim Gugel the county director of planning says it is just known as the Big Red Road because it's marked in red on county maps.

Frederick is well situated for commutes into the greater Washington-Baltimore area but is also attracting increasing so-called reverse commutes with the expansion of the US Army's Fort Detrich post in the middle of Frederick (specialists in military medicine and chemical/biological warfare) and major regional offices of companies like Bechtel. Even Capitol Hill lobbyists make a living here - 75km (46 miles) from the US Congress.

Tolling of interstates requires a state application and a contractual agreement between the US DOT and a state government, but in theory a state could devolve its powers to a local government or bring them into a three-way contract.

The new Urbana to US15 north of Frederick highway skirting the eastern edge of Frederick would probably not be built as an Interstate although it would cater more to real interstate traffic than I-270 does.

Frederick is known as the city of spires, largely because of a verse in a popular poem Barbara Fritchie by John Greenleaf Whittier (1863):

"Up from the meadows rich with corn

"Clear in the cool September morn

"The clustered spires of Frederick stand

"Greenwalled by the hills of Maryland

See also on Frederick MD tolling possibilities

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3017

TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-12