WMAL Interview - RON MEYER 07.12.17

RON MEYER- member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors (Broad Run District) TOPIC: It's a decades-old debate, but it's back up and running once again - the prospect of building a new Potomac River bridge into and out of Loudoun County • Planners to weigh 2nd Potomac River crossing from Montgomery — again. (Washington Post) -- A second Potomac River bridge connecting Montgomery County and Northern Virginia — an idea that has been studied and debated since the 1950s — is again drawing both interest and criticism, as elected officials and transportation planners search for ways to ease the region’s notoriously heavy traffic. Next week the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, the body that helps set transportation priorities for the metropolitan area, will consider listing the bridge project for further analysis. • “This is my number one for the region,” said Loudoun County Supervisor Ron Meyer (R), a member of the regional planning board. He served on a task force that winnowed more than 80 potential road and transit projects down to 10 for the full board to consider at its July 19 meeting. The idea of a river crossing north of the perpetually clogged American Legion bridge has long interested businesses, planners and many road-weary commuters. • Montgomery Council President Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), said Monday that the project would seriously damage the county’s 90,000 acre agricultural reserve. Maryland’s transportation dollars, he added, would be better spent widening Interstate 270 and the Legion bridge. “We need to fix what is broken, not fantasize about a bridge that will never happen,” Berliner said at his weekly news conference. Berliner said he will sponsor a resolution at Tuesday’s council meeting condemning the project. “In my judgment this is a zombie bridge, and we need to put a stake in this.”

• Opposition Rising Against Plan To Study Second Potomac River Crossing in Montgomery County. (Bethesda magainzine) - Opposition is beginning to build against a regional transportation group’s plan to study a second Potomac River crossing in Montgomery County. On Tuesday morning, Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner introduced a resolution that would formally put the council in opposition to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board’s plan to study the feasibility of a bridge that would help connect Virginia Route 28 to the Intercounty Connector in the county. Supporters of the proposed bridge say the connecting route would help ease traffic on I-270 and the American Legion Bridge on the Beltway and provide better connectivity to Dulles International Airport. • WJLA: Montgomery Co. Council opposes adding Potomac River crossing