Steve Burns
WMAL.com

ROCKVILLE – (WMAL) As some in Loudoun County continue clamoring for a new Potomac River crossing into upper Montgomery County, officials there are trying to head it off at the pass.

“Our county has been opposed to this bridge forever, and remains opposed to this bridge,” Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner told reporters Monday. “This will never happen.”

The potential bridge has been a long-discussed idea for ferrying drivers from Loudoun County into upper Montgomery County and back, potentially relieving congestion on the American Legion Bridge. However, Berliner cited a multitude of studies showing the new bridge would be infrequently used.

“Every analysis shows that the overwhelming majority of people that use 270 and use the American Legion Bridge are going either at the Beltway or within the Beltway,” he said. “They’re not going out to Dulles.”

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Transportation Planning Board is set to vote on further studying their idea at its meeting next week. The County Council is voting Tuesday on a resolution expressing its opposition to the bridge to TPB.

The highway leading to the bridge would likely need to be built through Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve, an idea county leaders aren’t fond of.

“It promotes sprawl. It degrades the environment. It destroys neighborhoods, and it would totally destroy the Ag Reserve,” Berliner said. “It is time to put this to bed. It is time to focus on things that really do matter.”

Berliner reiterated the county’s long-held position that congestion on the Legion Bridge and I-270 can be reduced with High-Occupancy Toll lanes, similar to what has been implemented on I-95 and the Beltway in Virginia. Governor Larry Hogan is opposed to tolls, and instead has chosen to move forward on a plan to reduce congestion on 270 through the creation of an “automated smart traffic system.”

Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Govt.)