MD Bill to Protect the Broadneck from the Next Bridge Nightmare

Please plan to attend Senate Bill #107 to be heard in the Senate Finance Committee Room at the Miller Office Bldg/Room #3E at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, 2/13/19. Consider testifying if you agree that the Broadneck needs to have a real say and some control over any Bay Bridge expansion.

This is a multi-year effort by my office and our dedicated Senator Ed Reilly and Delegate Michael Moran, to keep the Eastern Shore Counties from dictating where they want the new 3rd span of the Bay Bridge to be located. There is currently a law on the books–(from the 1970’s) that allows 9 named counties to join together to produce a majority of votes- 5/9- to reject any site selected that may affect them. “The affected county” is the wording in the old bill that is nebulous at best. If one county is directly affected by being the landing site selected by the MdTA then others can argue that they are also affected by summer E/B traffic due to the addition of a corridor north of south of where the current 2 spans of the Bay Bridge are located.

We know that our Rte #50/301 corridor is the corridor of choice to drop the 3rd span as there is a highway currently located East/West that can just be widened rather then the requirement for a new highway to be constructed in a new location away from AA County. The Eastern Shore commissioners have been lobbying the MdTA heavily to gain control over the new projected site. AA County must have control over the use of our Rte #50/301 Broadneck corridor with the ability to fight what we have heard–is the selected location for the 3rd span….(To be determined!)

Senator Reilly and Delegate Malone have submitted several bills in past years to gain control over this decision by amending the old Bill that allows E. Shore Counties to veto a site selection in their geography. They have are argued successfully that amending the Bill will take away power from local governments.

To strengthen our position, Senator Reilly and Delegate Malone have drafted a bill –SB#107 that will give AA County the same authority to deny our County from any additional toll road/toll bridge or other toll facility in our backyard without our approval. This seems like a simple task but it will be fought by the E. Shore Counties who are hoping to direct the decision in favor of where they DO NOT want this new Bay Bridge Span.

Please read the Bill on line (https://legiscan.com/MD/bill/SB107/2019) and attend the session next week prepared to testify. Also, please send a copy of this email to your Broadneck friends, neighbors and community members inviting them to participate.

If you can attend you must be there prior to noontime to sign-in/register to speak. Hopefully you will turn out in force as this is the last effort that we can make to gain more control/authority on this Bay Bridge and future corridor construction decisions.

–Pat Lynch, President
Broadneck Council of Communities, Inc.