CCT Update Shows Alignment Changes and Cost Escalation
The Corridor Cities Transitway, a busway from the Shady Grove Metro to Clarksburg, has a new price tag of up to $800 million and a target date to be up and running by 2021, according to planners.
Rick Kiegel, Maryland Transit Administration’s manager for the CCT updated the Montgomery County Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee on June 29 about the status of the project.
The MTA has continued to refine the CCT Project based on input from the public, from federal, state, and local government agencies, and in a continuous effort to make the project more efficient and cost effective. Changes to the project definition include:
- Width of Transitway
- CCT Platform Sizing
- New Bridge alignment over I-270
- Grade Crossing at Key West Avenue and Diamondback Drive
- New alignment along Darnestown Road and Muddy Branch Road
- Alignment along Great Seneca Highway
You can read a full description about each of those changes here.
Councilmembers urged Keigel to examine ways to reduce stormwater management projects associated with the project and incorporate bike paths along its route.
One of the most controversial section of the route is along Muddy Branch Road near Johns Hopkins University’s Belward Farm campus. JHU told committee members Monday the university is working to remove an historic eligible designation on the land that is so far preventing the Corridor Cities Transitway from coming through the property. Without a change to the Belward’s historic eligible designation, no federal funding can be used on this section of the project.
“There is a portion of the property that has historic designation around the existing farmhouse and Hopkins plans to continue to respect that portion of the property however adjacent to it are other lands considered historic eligible but don’t have historic designation. Under the current law however the federal and state governments would be asking Hopkins to disrupt that property rather than using state or federal funds to do so, so that is our intent,” said Leslie Ford Weber, director of Campus, Government and Community Affairs for JHU.
Homeowners in nearby Washingtonian Woods have been pushing to keep the CCT from coming down Muddy Branch Road between Great Seneca Highway and Route 28. Instead that group is pushing for the CCT to enter Belward farther south on Great Seneca Highway.
Leventhal: CCT Remains a Top Transportation Project (VIDEO)
Montgomery County Council President George Leventhal talks about the Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway projects and the funding capacity to do them both. Related:
Council Committee to Receive CCT Update on Monday
A Montgomery County Council Committee will learn more about the status of the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) on Monday morning. The Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee is scheduled to receive an update on the CCT, which is a planned busway extension from the Shady Grove Metrorail Station north to Clarksburg. The Committee is chaired […]
Rep. John Delaney on the CCT and More (VIDEO)
In this MyMCMedia Extra, U.S. Rep. John Delaney, a Democrat who is running for reelection in Maryland’s 6th District, shares his thoughts on transportation projects in our area while campaigning in Potomac earlier this week. Take a look: Early voting continues through Oct. 30 in Montgomery County. The General Election is set for Nov. 4.
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