We just received this notice from: “Eric Backes (MTA)” <EBackes@mta.maryland.gov> Date: August 14, 2017 at 4:38:57 PM EDT
Subject: FROM THE MTA OFFICE OF GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS: CCT Environmental Assessment Notification
Dear Mayor Donnell Newton:
Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA), in cooperation with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), is hereby notifying your office and the public of the availability of the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) Project for review and comment. The CCT Project consists of a nine-mile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) from Metropolitan Grove Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) Station to Shady Grove Metro Station. The CCT Project would operate at street level, separated from existing traffic, and include 13 stations.
The EA has been prepared in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations. MDOT MTA will not be pursuing a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) from the FTA at this time. MDOT MTA’s next steps are to undertake a $5 million effort to work on refining the 30% design as well as advancing the operating plan.
The EA document will be available on August 18, 2017 on the project website at www.mta.maryland.gov/cct and in hard copy at the following locations:
- Gaithersburg Library — 18330 Montgomery Village Ave. Gaithersburg, MD 20879
- Germantown Library — 19840 Century Blvd. Germantown, MD 20874
- Montgomery County Council Office Building (6th floor) — 100 Maryland Avenue Rockville, MD 20850
- Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration – 6 St. Paul Street, Suite 902. Baltimore, MD 21202
All interested parties are invited to comment upon the Project. Comments must be submitted in writing within 30 days of the publication of this notice. Please e-mail comments to cctproject@mta.maryland.gov or send written comments to the following address by September 22, 2017:
Corridor Cities Transitway Project
Maryland Department of Transportation
Maryland Transit Administration
Office of Planning
6 St. Paul Street, Suite 902
Baltimore, MD 21202
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or our office of Governmental Affairs at 410-767-3189. We are happy to help.
Eric R. Backes Deputy Director — Office of Governmental Affairs, Maryland Transit Administration, 6 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-6806
Office: 410-767-2536 Cell: 443-473-2616 ebackes@mta.maryland.gov
The Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) update as of Nov. 16, 2016: NPCA recently learned that the County Council is pushing the State to allocate funds for CCT after it was announced the funding would be deferred until FY 2023 by the Maryland Department of Transportation, as posted in its draft FY17-FY22 Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP) 2017 State Report on Transportation. (See www.ctp.maryland.gov) NPCA and County residents have raised many concerns about the CCT, including its cost-effectiveness. On October 31, 2016, NPCA board members and other citizens met with Maryland State Delegates Kumar Barve, Andrew Platt and Jim Gilchrest, and some of us met again on November 2 with Montgomery County Councilmember Sidney Katz and Legislative Aide Brian Jones, to point out our many concerns with the project. We will continue to stay on top of this issue and hope to keep the funding off the table.
October 31 post: The Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) has been deferred. The NPCA Board is pleased to learn that funding has been deferred until FY 2023 for the continued design, right-of-way acquisition and construction of CCT by the Maryland Department of Transportation, as posted in its draft FY17-FY22 Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP) 2017 State Report on Transportation. (See www.ctp.maryland.gov) NPCA and County residents have raised many concerns about the CCT, including its cost-effectiveness, so we are glad the county has deferred this funding, but we will stay on top of any changes that might occur in the future. In an October 11 Bethesda Beat article of Bethesda Magazine, Montgomery County state lawmakers were cited as “pushing back against a funding delay that has stalled design” of the CCT.
The Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) is a 15 mile project in Montgomery County, Maryland from the COMSAT facility near Clarksburg, Maryland to the Shady Grove Metro Station. The project has two phases. Phase I is 9 miles from Metropolitan Grove to Shady Grove. This Phase is actively underway and is currently proceeding with engineering and environmental analysis and is funded for formal environmental documentation, final design, and right-of-way acquisition. The CCT would be built as an entirely separate dedicated roadway facility, next to highways or in the median of existing streets. Phase II would be a future extension from Metropolitan Grove to the COMSAT facility near Clarksburg, and would be developed as land use matures and additional transportation funding becomes available. Go to the CCT website for more information.
Local residents have raised many concerns about the CCT. While it is embedded in the Montgomery County Master Plan it may not be a very cost-effective component of that plan, in an era of tight budgets, to alleviate the expected increase in travel to and from the proposed expansion of the Life Sciences Center (LSC). Construction of the CCT’s Phase I is expected to cost $600 to 700 million or more and incur the annual maintenance costs of a new 9 mile dedicated roadway, for questionable future ridership. It would be much less expensive and much more cost-effective to upgrade the existing Ride On bus service (shown in red on the overlay map) with larger and more frequent buses to meet increasing demand, as it is needed, and to tweak some of the existing Ride On routes to include LSC stops when further development actually takes place. Current Ride On bus service times are in fact better from point to point than the projected times of the CCT buses. Serious concerns have also been raised about the environmental impact on drainage and of the destruction of 100 large trees in the CCT right-of-way, its encroachment on existing residential areas, and the additional traffic congestion caused by its proposed alignment.