(4/3) Though
the Frederick County Commissioners believe
unfunded road projects don’t belong on
planning documents for future road
improvements, the Maryland State Highway
Administration doesn’t agree with them.
“If
everyone adopted a mindset of ‘If it’s not
funded, it’s not on a planning document,’ we
wouldn’t have a Highway Needs Inventory,” said
Dave Coyne, district engineer with the SHA. He
spoke to members of Thurmont’s Economic
Development Commission on March 19.
The Highway
Needs Inventory is the state’s long-range
unfunded road improvement plan. It contains
many projects for Frederick County that have
no funding but are needed or will be needed.
“We still
need to look forward and decide where the
needs will be,” Coyne said.
This is the
opposite of the position the county
commissioners have taken, deciding to remove
anything from the Thurmont Regional Plan that
isn’t funded, including an Emmitsburg bypass
and a Thurmont Industrial Parkway.
However,
gaining state funding for a project requires
that it be on the county’s priority list.
“It starts
with your elected officials to make it a
priority to make it a major project,” Coyne
said.
He pointed
out that even if the county places a project
on its priority list, it isn’t guaranteed
funding.
“The
priority list always far exceeds the money
available,” Coyne said.
One of the
reasons for this funding disparity is that the
state is concentrating more money on
preserving its existing road infrastructure
rather than building new roads.
The projects that do get funding are put on
the Consolidated Transportation Plan, a
six-year capital plan that can be found on the
Internet at
www.marylandroads.com.
John
Concannon with SHA also noted that U.S. Route
15 hadn’t been studied north of Biggs Ford
Road for additional interchanges. Because of
that, there are no plans presently to close
the at-grade access points on the highway.
