Blog: We Can’t Wait Either
Wednesday morning, President Obama held a press conference to urge Congress to pass the Rebuild America Jobs Act. The act would help us immediately advance critical infrastructure projects in Maryland while at the same time supporting at least 8,100 jobs.
Our infrastructure is one of the areas where we have the largest investment deficit in our State – and it’s something that matters both for job creation today, and for what type of State we leave for the next generation. There’s a connection between the investments we make in our infrastructure, and our ability to create jobs, expand opportunity and put this recession in our rear-view mirror.
The President’s act will allow us to rebuild our roads, bridges and tunnels while at the same time creating jobs. Here’s a list of five projects that would benefit immediately:
- Replace the I-695 Baltimore Beltway bridge over Milford Mill Road in Baltimore County. The existing bridge was constructed 50 years ago, and it’s now no longer wide enough to accommodate today’s traffic demand
- Replace the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge (Maryland-4) over Woodyard Road (Maryland-233) in Prince George’s County. The dual bridges that handle Pennsylvania Avenue traffic over Woodyard Road are no longer wide enough to accommodate the traffic load.
- Improve safety at Martin Luther King Boulevard (or Maryland-704) in Prince George’s County. This project will make it safer for both automobile and pedestrian traffic along this road. It will create bike lanes, decrease traffic speed by reducing the number of traffic lanes, and make safety upgrades to sidewalks and pedestrian signals.
- Improve the intersection of Maryland-22 and Old Post Road near Aberdeen in Harford County.
- Replace the MTA Kirk Bus Facility in Baltimore City. Right now, this bus facility is obsolete, and it causes a lot of noise and pollution for its neighbors. The new LEED-Silver certified facility will bring maintenance and operations activities of the facility indoors, reducing noise and air pollution while improving efficiency.
Martin O'Malley is the Governor of Maryland. He writes a regular blog for his official website.
Michael
7:40 pm on Monday, November 7, 2011
Governor Martin O'Malley states that the President’s Rebuild America Jobs Act “will allow us (Maryland) to rebuild our roads, bridges and tunnels, while at the same time creating jobs.” But what happened to the $610 million in federal Stimulus money (the Recovery Act) that was allocated to Maryland transportation projects in 2009? I remember reading that the money would be spent on road resurfacing projects, repairing bridges, and improving mass transit and commuter rail service. Maryland is one of only 10 states that has a website showing where, a how much, Stimulus money has been spent. http://statestat.maryland.gov/recovery.asp Those projects were also supposed to create thousands of new jobs. Yet, despite being below the 9.0 national unemployment average, the unemployment rate in Maryland continues to rise. Has Annapolis already spent over one-half billion dollars on infrastructure projects....in only two years?
Now Gov. O'Malley wants to increase the gasoline tax by 15 cents per gallon to finance more transportation infrastructure projects. It appears that Annapolis has already spent over one-half billion Stimulus dollars on infrastructure projects....in only two years....and it wasn't enough. Wow!