A $5 million study is underway into possible options for a new Chesapeake Bay traffic crossing. And the Maryland Transportation Authority needs your input, between now and December 15.
The Chesapeake Bay Crossing Study: Tier 1 NEPA aims to find “a preferred corridor alternative to address congestion at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and evaluation of its financial feasability.”
The National Environmental Policy Act study will evaluate the current future traffic demand across the Chesapeake Bay. It’s being conducted by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), which owns, operates and maintains the Bay Bridge.
The study will span the entire length of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, a 100-mile stretch from Havre de Grace to the southern border with Virginia, between St. Mary’s and Somerset Counties.
MDTA says the study is the beginning of a long process, and the study itself will take until 2020 to complete. But, the agency says, it’s a critical first step to ease congestion across the bridge, which is only predicted to get worse in the future.
In 1952, 1.1 million vehicles traveled over the Bay Bridge. In 2014, that number was 25.5 million vehicles.
The Bay Crossing Study will look for a corridor that could provide another way to get across the Bay, taking into account the financial burden as well as the environmental impact.
To submit a comment, or your suggestion for a new Bay crossing, click here. Public comment is open until December 15, 2017.
Â
