[Baltimore Sun] Larry Hogan’s Key Bridge rebuild claims don’t quite jibe with his record | STAFF COMMENTARY
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We do not routinely comment on social media posts, but one offered last week by former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican running to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate, deserves to be highlighted — if only because it represents the kind of partisan hubris and misrepresentation that the candidate claims to detest.
Reacting to recent news that a replacement for the Francis Scott Key Bridge is likely to cost $1.9 billion and not be completed for four years, Hogan posted on X that as governor in 2022, his administration “opened the new Nice-Middleton Bridge — which is similar in size — across the Potomac, under budget and ahead of schedule.” He added that he has “been urging the Biden administration to expedite” any environmental review of the new Key Bridge and promises to “cut the red tape” if elected to the Senate.
A couple of corrections to the record are in order. First, the Key Bridge replacement already has qualified for an expedited permit review under the National Environmental Policy Act’s “categorical exclusion” list. It’s not “red tape” delaying the process, but the serious challenge of designing and building a bridge simultaneously.
And second, the Gov. Harry W. Nice Memorial/Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton Bridge was already designed and ready to go when Hogan took office in 2015. Hogan actually held up the project as governor, vetoing legislation to help finance it and then getting into a dispute with Democratic lawmakers over whether the bridge should have a promised bike lane that his administration cut because of cost. When the new four-lane span opened two years ago, not only did it lack that dedicated bike lane, but the piers of the old two-lane Nice Bridge were removed so that a proposed remedy, a dedicated bike and pedestrian bridge, could not be pursued.
“I think they took the piers out of spite. He foreclosed that option for a generation when it would have been cheaper to leave them,” said John D. Porcari, who served as secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation under Democratic Govs. Parris Glendening and Martin O’Malley.
For a better comparison of how Hogan would handle transportation construction as a U.S. Senator, we might look to the Purple Line light rail project he initiated during his first term. By the time he left office last year, the project was 66% over budget (at $9.3 billion) and nearly 5 years behind schedule.
Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.
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