ICC overrun more than entire Columbia Pike streetcar

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ICC overrun more than entire Columbia Pike streetcar

by David Alpert • September 4, 2008 2:24 pm

The price tag for the middle segment of the ICC, from Georgia Avenue almost to Columbia Pike, has jumped another $100 million. BeyondDC points out that Virginia could build the entire Columbia Pike streetcar for less money than Maryland is wasting on the overrun alone for this one segment.

By Casey Serin on Flickr.

Remember, we built the Washington Metro largely out of the money that the federal government was originally going to spend on the region's freeways. Imagine what a great transit system Montgomery and Price George's counties could get for the $2.4 billion (or more) cost of the ICC.

8 comments — Share	— tags: ICC, Maryland, streetcars

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Comments

I would imagine that the great majority of your readers already know this, but you should note that the Columbia Pike that the ICC will cross is not the same one the Columbia Pike streetcar is planned for.

Also the ICC and the Columbia Pike streetcar project are in different states. Perhaps an example from Maryland would be more appropriate. (I don't personally know of a planned or proposed transit project in Maryland that's expected to cost in the range of $150 million, so I can't name one)

by Mario on Sep 4, 2008 3:55 pm

It's not a bad comparison for the sake of size of numbers.

This was former Gov. Ehrlich's pet project and Gov. O'Malley didn't want to/didn't have the political capital to fight the political battles against what was a very popular project when he was sworn in.

The sad thing about this road was that it was part of Gov. Ehrlich's strategy to kill the Purple Line (and Red Line in Baltimore) by sinking all the money into this highway.

by Cavan on Sep 4, 2008 4:05 pm

You're right, I glossed over the MD-VA point. I've tweaked the text to make that clear. A direct tradeoff would indeed be better - part of the Corridor Cities Transitway maybe? Or light rail on their Columbia Pike?

by David Alpert on Sep 4, 2008 4:20 pm

They've been saying light-rail on our Columbia Pike's too expensive since 1981. Not enough ridership to justify the expense, despite the fact that thousands of apartments were built in anticipation of the trains coming. Oh, well. Those apartments will sit at the end of an ICC off-ramp now.

by dan reed on Sep 4, 2008 4:58 pm

Wasn't there some talk of a light rail project between Bethesda and Silver Spring? Wasn't that shot down by the Chevy Chase Country Club crowd? I thought they replaced it with some sort of rapid bus line.

by monkeyrotica on Sep 5, 2008 8:18 am

I don't know why more cities don't build street cars. Since the steetcar projects are always on-time and on-budget. That way politicians can avoid critisms like this one.

As a point of comparison the rail to Dulles extension estimates are now up to $5 billion from an original $2 to $3 billion. So for $2.4 billion Mayland could have planned a swell transit system, but it would have ended up costing about $6 billion.

by Tom on Sep 5, 2008 8:26 am

monkeyrotica,

I'm trying to laugh at what I hope is humor.

by Cavan on Sep 5, 2008 10:21 am

I bet a LRT up Maryland's Columbia Pike would generate more ridership than most models would project... over time, anyways. Most of that corridor is closely culturally tied to downtown Silver Spring and/or downtown Columbia. If development along the corridor was handled smartly with regard to stations along said line, I bet it would be a very successful endeavor... albeit one that would likely be more than $150 million.

by Dave Murphy on Sep 7, 2008 2:31 am