Md. to Cut Funding Of Roads, Transit

"We knew the cuts were coming," said Edgar Gonzalez, Montgomery's deputy director for transportation planning. "The surprise was how deep the cuts would be."

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) was "very disappointed" with the decreases, said spokesman John Erzen. Erzen said that five of the county's top road projects lost substantial funding and that the impact of the state cuts was greater in Prince George's than in Montgomery.

"We're certainly concerned about that disparity," he said.

Prince George's County Council member Tony Knotts (D-Temple Hills) said the reduction to road improvements around the Branch Avenue Metro stop would discourage commuters from using the system. "They won't see an advantage if they're sitting in traffic indefinitely trying to get there," said Knotts, whose district borders the area.

Montgomery officials homed in on the reductions to two transit projects: the 16-mile east-west Purple Line and the 13.5-mile north-south Corridor Cities Transitway, between Shady Grove and the Clarksburg area.

Some Montgomery transit supporters said they worried that cuts would send the wrong signal to federal transit officials, who will consider Maryland's ability to pay its share of transit projects that receive federal money.

A road project high on Montgomery leaders' priority list -- construction of an interchange to replace the stoplights at Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road -- would be delayed at least three years. Most of the construction money was pushed back until 2014, Montgomery officials said.

"That was our number one congestion relief project," said Montgomery County Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At Large), chairman of the transportation committee.

The $15.9 million cut for intersection improvements near the Bethesda Naval hospital also prompted concern, given projections of increased traffic after Walter Reed Army Medical Center moves there in 2011.

The intersection at Cedar Lane and Rockville Pike, near entrances to the naval hospital and Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, is one of the most clogged in the county, said George Milne, a member of the Montgomery BRAC Implementation Committee and a Stone Ridge trustee.

"There are enormous backups for our parents to get into and out of the school and for neighbors in the area as well," Milne said.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold (R) voiced concern about the loss of funding for intersection improvements around Fort Meade in his county. "It's a critical improvement to keep pace with BRAC growth," Leopold said.

Officials also cut $2.4 million from the Southern Maryland Mass Transportation Analysis, the state's share of a local effort to extend light rail from the Branch Avenue light rail station to Waldorf.

The project has been a priority of the Charles County Commissioners and the regional Tri-County Council, but it has not received as much attention from state officials.

Staff writers Megan Greenwell, Rosalind S. Helderman, William Wan and Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.