Good evening. Hi, County Executive. How are you, sir? Good. We'll have open it up to you, sir. If you want to make any comments. Good evening. My name is Craig Dickerson. I'm the Administrative for the Office of Transportation. Here for Howard County. I want to welcome our state delegates and I council members here to this evening. I want to thank you all for coming. This meeting will be recorded so I want to get out the way. Tonight we are joined by the Maryland Department Transportation to discuss. Good meeting you is being recorded. Hello, too quick. They're here to discuss their Constellate Transportation Program. Their draft consolidated transportation program here tonight. So with that being said, I'm gonna turn it over to my county's head, Dr. Kalenbaum. Thank you so much and good evening, Mr. Secretary, representatives from the Maryland Department of Transportation and colleagues, elected colleagues as well as our community. I want to thank all of you for joining us here in Howard County to discuss M.DOT's six-year capital program. Tonight, we are joined by many of our state and local elected officials who will be sharing their questions and comments in the draft CTP later on this evening. As a member of the state's first transportation revenue and investment needs commission, I remain highly focused on ensuring that the Baltimore region's needs are fully addressed in future updates of this draft program. Your ongoing collaboration has been crucial in advancing key projects in our region and I thank you. I would like to not only thank you and recognize you but also Governor Moore and all of M.Dott for your swift and comprehensive response to the challenges surrounding the key bridge. Your efforts have ensured that our region could quickly recover and continue supporting the port of Baltimore's growth along with the jobs and economic benefits it provides to our region. Additionally, I'd like to recognize a familiar face to Howard County and the M.Dot team and Bruce Gardner. Welcome home. And while we all miss having him with us locally, we are fortunate that he is now leading critical efforts at the MDTA to rebuild the bridge. And I know his work has been instrumental in maintaining the momentum on a bridge that is essential to the regional connectivity, safety, and economic prosperity. Last year, our priority transportation projects and concerns continue to focus, like last year, rather, continue to focus on US 1, US 29, and I 70, with a very important emphasis on transportation safety projects for everyone who walks, bikes, drives, and rides transit in our community. I want to draw your attention back to why we are so deeply concerned about safety. The US-1 corridor is one of the most dangerous roadways in our state, a fact recognized by Howard County, the state of Maryland and the federal government. Through our collective efforts, we have highlighted the critical need for safety improvements along this corridor in our U.S.1 Safety Evaluation, which was completed in 2019. Since then, we are pleased that MDOT has designated parts of this corridor as a pedestrian safety action plan area. Howard County also successfully pursued a safe streets for all grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which we are in the process of receiving funds from this fall. However, we know that designations and planning efforts are just one part of the equation. To improve safety along the Route 1 corridor, we will continue to advocate for state implementation, funding and emphasize the timely project delivery as paramount. In particular, I want to focus on the SHA Safety Projects Along Route 1 at Rowanberry Drive and Dr. Patel Drive in Elkridge. These two projects are our number one priority for the state. Since last year, we have continued to impress upon M.The importance of these projects, and I'm very concerned that these two projects were listed as a potential deferral in the draft FY25 CTP. To jumpstart the projects identified in the US one safety evaluation, Howard County invested funds to design these projects more than four years ago. After the state experienced did delay due to a contractor issue last year, we requested that the Dr. Patel project be upgraded to a full signal to maximize pedestrian safety in November of 2023. And while we are very grateful to SHA for agreeing to upgrade the Dr. Patel project to a full signal, more must be done to accelerate construction. In the last year alone, we have tragically witnessed the deaths of two pedestrians at Dr. Patel Drive where there is currently no safe crossing. The most recent of these deaths was just a few weeks ago on September 6. Between 2018 and 2023, 42% of all crashes in the immediate vicinity of Dr. Patel Drive were severe enough to cause injuries. These heartbreaking events are traumatizing for our entire community. Last week, I sent a letter to SHA to urge the state to take all possible actions to expedite and finish your internal reviews of this project so that it can be advertised for construction this calendar year. We cannot afford to wait any longer. As we await construction on the two safety projects in Elkridge, we also look forward to continued progress to improve safety along the US-1 corridor in North Laurel. MDOT recently completed a successful, complete streets leadership academies quick build project in North Laurel, and we look forward to the upcoming public meeting on the pedestrian safety action plan projects. We know that MDOT has the capacity and expertise to deliver these projects quickly for the benefit of all of our residents. Through these efforts, our teams have worked together to align Howard County's award-winning complete streets policy and MDOT's recently approved complete streets policy and M.DOTs recently approved complete streets policy. We look forward to this continued collaboration. As a strong proponent of partnerships, I know they work and we are looking forward to your continued partnership to keep this momentum going. On the US-1, on the US-29 corridor, rather, we are requesting M.DOT's continued financial and technical support in improving transit connectivity. In partnership with Montgomery County, Howard County has secured federal funds to extend the Montgomery County Flash bus system to downtown Columbia, Maple Lawn, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In FY 2020, MDOT eliminated approximately $2 million in US 29 improvement funding that was needed to support ongoing planning efforts. This funding is crucial to ensure that the entire corridor can provide fast and reliable safe transit service. These improvements are closely tied to Montgomery County's project to implement median lanes in Silver Spring, which will benefit all users along the corridor. We would like to see this funding restored in support of our Regional Transit and Connectivity initiatives. Now as part of our focus on US29, the ongoing safety and congestion issues remain. The signal at Rivers Edge represents a significant bottleneck for both transit and vehicular movements. This area, including the Maryland 32 US 29 interchange, also faces major safety challenges with three fatalities and 71 serious injuries from 817 crashes recorded since 2018. We're requesting that M.DOT continue to prioritize this area and seek cost-effective solutions to the challenge posed by a traffic signal on a highway directly adjacent to a major interchange. I also want to draw your attention to the ongoing challenges in addressing congestion in the I-70 corridor. And last year CTP, we were pleased that MDOT committed to implementing the TSMO project on I-70. However, the decision to place the project on hold this year is disappointing. Howard County has invested funding to advance sidewalk projects on Maryland 29 supporting M.DOT. The impact is especially felt by residents as drivers divert on to local roads when the I-70 corridor is congested. We have requested additional details on how this deferral will impact residents and M.Dots ability to implement a systems approach on this corridor. These are state roads that serve drivers across our entire region. And we encourage M.Dots to continue to develop solutions. And we want to partner with you in those solutions. Now I am pleased to learn that M.Dots has been able to maintain funding for our transit services and that the revised formula has resulted in a $670,000 increase in transit operating support along with some additional funding for para transit. Thank you. However, the need for further support does remain significant. Howard County is fully committed to a regional transit. And we are funding a flash extension to Montgomery County and will also be implementing an extension of our RTA service to lands down in Baltimore County, linking us to both Baltimore and Washington DC transit systems. These efforts demonstrate our strong commitment to enhancing transit connectivity across our entire state. The restoration of many commuter bus routes is also welcome news. However, the service reductions will still have a direct impact on our residents and workforce mobility. As all lines saw an average reduction of approximately 45 percent, with the most significant cuts 57 percent on the Washington DC bound routes 305 and 325. State support for our locally operated transit system remains crucial and we respectfully encourage MDOT to provide more support for local systems like ours which are almost entirely locally funded. I've only got ten more pages. There's a strong need for increased service frequency and improved regional connections to the BWI Airport and Mark Stations in neighboring jurisdictions. And meeting this demand will require additional operating support. Now while I appreciate that the draft CTP is balanced, this balance was achieved at a significant cost to the Baltimore region. Last year during my closing remarks at our 2023 tour meeting, I acknowledged the funding challenges M.Faces now and the greater challenges M.Faces in the future. Unfortunately, the future is now. And with a $1.7 billion funding gap that includes cuts to transit resurfacing and bridge repair, all of which are critical to ensuring our transportation systems. We need that to remain safe and reliable. Now as a member of the Tran Commission, I'm pleased to see the CTP site and the recommendation to develop a new draft prioritization system for projects aimed at making the process more transparent and accountable. However, the underlying funding challenges ensure that the future CTPs will continue to face significant issues. And we look forward to working with MDOT, our state delegation, and the county council and our governor to develop solutions to these funding challenges. In the coming weeks, we welcome M.DOT's response and action to provide a clear and direct plan to ensure that our U.S.1 priorities are met. As part of that plan, I want to emphasize that Howard County, our entire team, our Office of Transportation, we are at your disposal. And we look forward to maintaining the collaborative and positive relationship with your team for our residents. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, County Executive Ball. And I too, I wanted to thank you and your team for working in partnership with us. We've got so many, many issues. And I know we will continue that partnership into the future. So thank you. Yes, we will, Mrs. Secretary. With that, thank you for inviting us to provide an overview of our draft six-year consolidated transportation program. More commonly known as the CTP, which covers fiscal years 2025 to 2030. Before I begin, I just wanted to thank the county for taking the time to meet with us in Beco, in August. I think it's a great opportunity for us to share some of our opportunities and challenges that we face together. And also just to build the relations up further to deal with some of the projects and some of the services that we all want to try to achieve together. I will keep my opening comments brief focusing on the update of the department's finances since it drives the investment levels for projects and services in Howard County. I will then turn the briefing over to representatives from the various modes to discuss their more detailed projects and services specific to Howard County. And of course at the end of the presentation we're available to answer any questions that you may have. Regarding M.Dots finances, as you may recall, the SGR CTP required 3.3 billion in reductions between the operating capital budgets. Thanks to the Governor's one time funding from the State's Rundee Day Fund and the General Assembly's edition of $1.8 billion in additional revenues, we were able to reduce the levels of reductions needed to balance the budget. For example, with these funds we were able to maintain commitments to local governments to restore the high-will user revenue and locally operated transit grants which are so important to Howard County Turning now to this year's draft CTP for fifth graders 25 through 2030 the department continues to face significant budgetary challenges because of the state's slow economic growth the rising cost of labor and materials and revenues can coming in lower than projections. For example, the Motor Fuel Tax, the Transportation Trust Fund's largest source, have come in lower than projected by approximately $350 million. While at the same time, operating costs have increased by $300 million. As a result of these financial pressures, the Department is making strategic investments with our limited resources to further enhance the safety of our system and maintain operations. Getting into the detail of the draft CTP is balanced at a total of 18.9 billion dollars over six years. However, because of the fiscal constraints, we had to make tough decisions and reductions to live within our means. This resulted in reductions of 1.3 billion compared to last year's final CTP. Even with these reductions, M.DOT is committed to strategically using available resources advanced to the state's priorities and your priorities. The number one priority is safety. The safety of everyone using the transportation system, including those who walk and bike and work on our transportation network. For example, this summer, I signed an updated Department-wide Complete Streets Policy. The updated policy was support Maryland's vision zero goal to rapidly reduce traffic utilities and serious injuries to zero by 2030. Last year, more than 600 people were killed on our roads. And of those deaths, more than 600 people were killed on our roads. And of those deaths, more than a quarter were pedestrians and bicyclists. I am passionate about saving these lives. And our new complete streets policy prioritizes enhancing safety with features such as bike lanes and pedestrians crossings. The policy will apply to projects within departments right away as well as all projects we fund. The state highway administration is already moving through the planning designed to construct and phases of transforming five quarters in Maryland into complete streets, including US1, Washington, Bolvog, here in Howard County. Administrator Pondex will talk more fully on all those issues, particularly ones that were raised by the county executive. We have also partnered with the Smart Growth America to host a complete streets leadership academy, aimed at deploying cost-effective, quick builds safety pilot projects, including here Howard County. These projects are targeting an areas of history of traffic, utilities, or crashes. Additionally, we continue to part with local governments to seek federal grants to invest in needed traffic calming and pedestrian safety improvements. In addition to our focus on safety, the department will continue to make strategic investments that support Maryland's families and economy of the state. Some of the examples include advancing electric vehicle charging stations and new federally funded resiliency and carbon reduction projects across the state. Funding the Hoursery Tunnel Support Growth of the Port of Baltimore with its creation of thousands of family sustaining careers. Funding the AB Connector Project to support the continued operations and passenger experience at BWI Thirdo Martial Airport. Funding the Frederick Douglass Tunnel Project on the Penn line, supporting the project development process for the Baltimore Red Line, and advancing public infrastructure work and enhancements for the FBI headquarters relocations in Greenbelt. Again, I want to thank the county for working with us on the number of these projects, and as we work together to solve some of the challenges that we have together. That concludes my opening remarks. I will now turn it over to Administrator Pines from State Highway Administration to go through projects in Howard County. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Good evening, everyone. I'm Will Pines, State Highway Administrator. And I also want to quickly introduce our District 7 District Engineer, Andrew Radcliffe, who assists with meeting local and constituent needs here in the county. It was a pleasure meeting with many of you at the Make-A-Conference last month, and we look forward to continuing the conversations on how we can best meet the county needs. At SHA, we understand the fiscal challenges in Maryland that we're facing. However, I want to assure you of two things. First, SHA will continue to do big things, moving forward with multimodal projects that improve safety, accessibility, and mobility. Second, safety will always be our highest priority. This means building and maintaining a system that supports pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and all users, including our highway workers. Eccling the Secretary's remarks, SHA has been a proud partner with the M.Team on the new Complete Streets Policy and on the Complete Streets Leadership Academy. I know Howard County is no stranger to Complete Streets. That's why it is fitting that US1 was selected for a Complete Streets Leadership Academy project this past summer. SHA and coordination with Smart Growth America One was selected for a complete streets leadership academy project this past summer. SHA and coordination was smart growth America, partnered in Howard County to deliver a quick build demonstration project along US one southbound between Davis Avenue and North Laurel Road, which was completed in August. The improvements installed aimed to improve pedestrian bicycle safety, reduce speeds, and maintain accessibility for businesses. Another key tool in our toolbox is the pedestrian safety action plan or what we refer to as the PSAP program. As you know, US1 from Maryland 32 to Patuxent River was selected among the first PSAP corridors. We're looking forward to our PSAP public workshop. It's planned for next Tuesday, September 24th. And we believe that our demonstration project will help the community and local motorists understand the vision for how the PSAP program can make a real difference towards safer highways. We're excited to work with you in the community to identify strategies and improvements to make US1 safer and more accessible for all users. In the same line, one of my first ask of my team when I came on the job last year was to take a look at enhancing crosswalks statewide. In fiscal year 2024, we upgraded 1,09 crosswalks at 462 intersections across the state. In Howard County specifically, that included upgrading 26 crosswalks at 14 intersections. Last year I also talked about my goal to improve and modernize the efficiency of state highway. Over the past year we began refreshing our access permitting process to streamline and improve the review timelines to support economic development throughout Maryland. This includes closely tracking permits from the traffic impact studies through the plan review phase until the final permit is received. We also updated our procedures and the timelines associated with them and made them public facing to help ensure that there's transparency in the process. SHA has improved our permit review and issuing timelines while also seeing an increase in the number of recent permit submissions that we received. We'll continue to explore ways we can work to be more efficient to best support our local and developer partners. Now I'd like to highlight a few of the local SHA projects this past year and thank the county for its support and partnership. We resurface sections of Frederick Road, Old Frederick Road, Woodbine Road, Montgomery Road, and Maryland 32. And we're continuing the project through November on Southbound US 29 between Frederick Road and Maryland 175. In July, we also completed the $14.5 million project on Maryland 103 in Ellicott City from US-29 to Longay Shopping Center. The project included a third lane on Westbound Maryland 103 at US 29, Reconstruction of Traffic Signals, and the installation of green painted bicycle lanes and other features, another measure for cycling safety. We're continuing the work on US 1 pedestrian improvements between North Laurel and Elkridge. I want to thank the county for the partnership in advancing these projects and for the recent support letters that we've received from several of you advocating for continuing advancements of these improvements which include new sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian signals and other safety features at a number of locations. We completed Gilford Road and Brewer's Court locations late last year and at Dr. Patel Road and Rowanbury Drive, these are currently in design and are funded to complete the engineering process. We are also well aware of the traffic loss of life, or the tragic loss of life in this corridor, and are committed to finishing the design for these improvements. In the CTP, this project is noted as being subject to potential deferral for the construction given our financial constraints. But we're doing everything we can to federally fund this safety project by keeping federal non-participation costs as low as possible to position the project for nearly full federal funding. This could allow us to move forward, but the state match funding remains a real challenge and we're cognizant of this as we work through the design process. While we must live within the means of our budget, as I mentioned before, we're still doing big things to move forward the important projects and programs for this county and especially those that are critical for safety. Thank you again for your time and I'll now turn it over to Chrissy Nizer with the MBA. Thank you, Will. Customer service has always been the cornerstone of everything we do at MBA as we strive to deliver that premier customer service commitment. If you've interacted with the MBA over the last year, hopefully you're part of that 99.5 customer satisfaction customer service commitment. If you've interacted with the MBA over the last year, hopefully you're part of that 99.5 customer satisfaction rating that we've received, which is really something that we're proud of. We have seen more transactions in our branch offices this last year as we return to normal service or actually up 6.7% from the prior year, which makes it even more impressive that our wait time was five minutes last fiscal year. Part of that reason is because we've now got 80% of our transactions completed through alternative measures. That includes online, at our kiosk, by mail, all those alternative service measures. And we encourage our customers to sign up for their My MBA account. We're close to 2 million customers now, but it really provides that 24-7 access to any of your MBA-related business. In ongoing effort to reach out to all members of the community, our outreach teams have been active and performed reentry services at the Chesapeake Correctional Institute, as well as worked with local organizations to ensure the on-house population received the critical service they need by issuing that ID card. Our outreach team has also proctored the learners permit test at the Homewood Center School. Not only does it allow students to take the test in a comfortable environment, maybe a little less stressful than at the MBA branch office, it also saves that trip for the parents. It happens right there at the school itself. In addition, the teams worked with local organizations to offer assistance at many notable events, including a small business expo to help veteran-owned businesses and working with the office of veterans and military families to help those members access our services as they return home. The MBA and its partners also remain committed to highway safety. Obviously, you've heard that both from the Secretary and Will and certainly just want to re-emphasize that each of us, you know, feels those tragedies personally and it's something we're committed to reaching that goal of zero fatalities. Last year, 23 people were lost in Howard County or in Roadway fatalities and so far this year are already up to 21 and so that's something must continue to work on. Part of that effort is some highway safety funding that Governor Moore just announced this month that includes law enforcement agencies here in Howard County including the Howard County Police Department as well as Crashcore who partners with us in doing much of the data analysis that helps us do our work. I'd also like to really commend Howard County for the important work that you've done with your local Highway Safety Plan and really bringing together the partners. We truly believe that is critical in helping to reach our goal and we're going to continue at it and the Secretary has really challenged us to find new and creative ways to help save lives on our roadways. In closing, it's always important to recognize the important work of our MBA employees. They truly make it happen every day and without them we cannot achieve these wonderful results. So thank you for your time this evening and with that I will turn it over to Ricky at BWI. Thank you, Chris. Good evening, everyone. It's good to be here again. I remind you that I am a... I remind you that I am a Howard County resident, so I'm always excited to come back home and give this presentation. I'm joined by Kiva Rodriguez, who is the Chief Operating Officer for MAA, who's also a Howard County resident, and Paul Shank, our chief engineer, we don't know where he's from. So again, thank you. The Merle Navigation System, as you know, is a key driver of economic activity and global connectivity for the state of Maryland. Our public use airports across the state are economic engines that contribute to job creation, business development andwide access as the business airport in the region. For passenger and cargo traffic, BWR-3R, the Marshall Airport is a key driver of this economic activity and global connectivity. The airport produces an annual economic impact of 11.3 billion while generating, supporting, and sustaining more than 107,000 jobs throughout the region. Even as BWI Marshall serves as a vital economic catalyst that supports innovation and tourism, we recognize and prioritize our position as a good neighbor. Our position as a good neighbor is powered by a commitment to youth development, community engagement, military engagement, environmental sustainability and economic development. We have a longstanding comprehensive noise program to help support our local communities, including a system with nearly 30 sophisticated noise monitors placed throughout the region. For decades, we have participated in the FAA's noise compatibility program, which provides sound insulation for eligible residents and schools to mitigate aircraft noise. To date, more than 700 local homeowners have participated. And our current phase of the program, 18 homes, were recently treated and construction is underway on another 20 homes. We will soon award a construction contract to improve more than 200 local multi-family units. For seven years, we've actively partnered with local residents and elected officials to create and support the DC Metroplex community roundtable, which has worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to recommend adding, create important modifications to airline flight procedures. In recent weeks, the FAA implemented these new arrival and departure procedures for aircraft at BWI Marshall Airport. The updated flight paths marked a significant milestone in the commitment to address noise concerns by local residents. These revised procedures were specifically designed to help reduce noise impacts for communities near the airport. This was a collaborative and very detailed effort. Our partners, government leaders, the residents that served on the round table are to be commended for their commitment and hard work on this issue. As a service update, BWR Marshal has recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic traffic levels. It was a record-setting summer for airline and passenger traffic with an all-time monthly passenger record set in June and then promptly outdone in July. In our capital program, we are advancing important projects that will enhance BWR Marshal Fowell passengers and provide important facilities for partners. As Secretary Wittelfel mentioned, the AB connector and Bagel's Handling Project continues to be the largest capital improvement project in the airport's history. This major project will be largely complete late next year around December of next year. We look forward to the new enhancements for our customers and Southwest Airlines. The MA continues to support the 33 public use airports that serve communities across the state. Thanks to Secretary Wittefeld, the statewide aviation grants program provides important support and may intense to administer over $3.5 million in funding during fiscal year 2025 for regional airports across the state. Again thank you for this opportunity to give you an update. I will now hand it to Holly Arnold, the MTA administrator. All right, thank you Ricky. Good evening my name is Holly, and I'm the administrator of the Maryland Transit Administration. A safe and reliable public transit system remains key to growing and strengthening our region. Robust public transit system means economic and social mobility. It means decreased carbon emissions, a reduction in traffic congestion, and safer streets for our entire region. This draft CTP includes project development funding for the Red Line with an investment of more than 150 million going toward this vitally important investment in the Central Maryland Regional's transit infrastructure. Work is continuing on the Frederick Douglass tunnel. This tunnel will provide significant safety, reliability, and speed improvements for Mark in addition to a new ADA accessible West Baltimore station. We're also completing major state of good repair investments in our Metro subway system, with several new cars having already arrived and undergoing testing. Our Metro project also includes investment in a state-of-the-art communications-based train control system that's being installed right now. Finally, we're advancing our Light Rail modernization program to provide new modern light rail vehicles and stations to the system that will significantly improve reliability and create opportunities for more frequent service. The CTP does reflect some difficult choices to defer some state of good repair investments. However, I want to be clear that safety remains a top priority for the agency. Regular inspections and repairs will continue to ensure the system is safe and reliable for our riders. More than 59% of the CTP supports keeping our systems operating, delivering value to the state through ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation. In addition to the MTA investments, our locally operated transit systems are critical partners in providing transit throughout the state. MTA has implemented a new funding allocation formula, which has made the distribution more equitable and responsive to the changes in the transit agencies, jurisdictions, investment and transit service. We do invest here in Howard County by providing nearly 5.3 million in operating and capital grants to support those local transit operations. These grants provide funding for preventive maintenance, for two heavy duty buses, and for the ride share program. So thank you for the opportunity to speak today and I'm now going to turn it over to Bruce Gardner at MDTA. Thank you Holly. So hello everybody, for the record Bruce Gardner executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority. Just like to start off by saying well I do miss serving my home county and the team that I worked with here it's in a pleasure to be part of the M.Dot family that I'm sitting next to today. They were largely responsible for helping me get through those first few months after the key bridge collapse and I'm grateful to them for that. So in a normal year, presenting to you, I would try to keep this very brief, maybe a page of remarks or less, but I think this year maybe I need to go to two pages to explain some of the things that we've been going through with the key bridge. The last five months have been full of activity, but they started out with the real outpouring of support from everyone, all of you that did that for us. We do appreciate that. But recently we've made great progress in getting that Categorical Exclusion for the bridge to allow us the Neapoproval for the rebuild. We recently approved a contract to Kiwit to help with that Progressive Design build project that is company that is Based here in Howard County for the Maryland presence and There were all day meetings in the Gateway Part of the county to get that project underway. So Doing a lot of work there on other procurements to help that project along Just want to emphasize that this is a bridge that will be built to Current industry standards that it will have the existing lanes, the two lanes in each directions that we have, but it will be built with the standards for Barry Walsh and and and shoulders to get to modern, modern highway standards. We're doing a lot of engagement with the local communities around the bridge. Last night I was over at Trade Point Atlantic, meeting with a bunch of homeowner association leaders there and explaining the process to them and those meetings will continue throughout the process here. The bridge rebuild will begin construction in 2025 and it's expected to be completed. As we've said, an aggressive schedule of fall of 2028. I know personally that many of your constituents that in Howard County are feeling the impacts the process of the process of the process of the process of the evening is fairly significant. We've taken measures to try to just lane configurations in 895, even on a temporary basis. But most significantly, we do have a project on the 895 quarter at the harbor tunnel just south of the tunnel to replace that existing toll plaza. We do not want to impact traffic further, so we're reconsidering our approach to that project. And we'll probably have to push the main line improvements of that project out to pass the time period when the key bridge is going to be in place. So we're developing the concepts for different delivery mechanisms in that and that's an ongoing effort. Lastly, we continue to work with our federal partners in the Congressional delegation to secure the 100% federal funding for the new bridge, as you can imagine, dealing with Congress in this time of year when they're dealing with continuing resolutions. We don't have any specific answers for you, but please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go after that 100% funding. It does help us with our financial picture that I know those of you in the general assembly that'll be talking to us during session would be very interested in our financial structure. We do have sufficient cash flow and capital reserves, including our insurance proceeds that will be used in the near term, and FY25 to support the rebuild efforts. And we will be going through an update of our financial forecast in December, evaluating all the potential changes between now and then. Our current estimates indicate the potential need for an adjustment to our tolls in fiscal year 2028. Without any changes to our current operating and capital expenditures. So with that, just like to thank you for your time, and I'll turn it back over to the Secretary. Thank you, Bruce. And closing, I'd like to take a moment to discuss the other economic engine, Maryland, the Port of Baltimore, and obviously the impact that the key bridges had on the port. The port is re-bounded strongly and is embarking on a master plan that will grow the business and generate additional jobs there at the Port of Baltimore. We also have the importance of the port to the local economy with the tragic collapse of the bridge. The number of ships and trucks coming in going from the port are just about back to normal levels. However, overall cargo volumes are down, due to the Port's main channel being out of service for about two months. Crew ships are back, the ship is sailing in full capacity, so that's very good news. This summer is a great step forward in the ports of recovery and we're going to finish out the year with continued progress. So with that, again, thank you for your attention and be glad to take any questions that you may have at this time. Thank you. We're now open to floor to our state and local elect officials. I would defer to delegate will to county help manage those questions from our officials. Thank you, Mr. Dickerson. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and your team come to Howard County, and I see all of you here. And I would first let our delegation introduce each of you, so how about we start with it? Good evening. I know I saw you yesterday. Natalie's the English assistant. Sorry. I'm not a fan. Hi, I'm Delegate Tarasa District 13, and I wanted to thank all of you for meeting with my committee that Transportation Committee, the Environment and Transportation Committee yesterday. It was really informative and helpful and I appreciate the partnership. Good evening Delegate Jessica Feldmark from District 12A. Thank you. Delegate Courtney Watson District 9B. Okay, now go with our council member. Thank you, delegate. My name is Deb Young. I represent District 4 here in Howard County. I'm also the County Council Chair. And Ms. Walsh. Oh, wait, one more thing. Ms. Rigby, who represents Council District 3, she and I both had the same competing meeting tonight at the exact same time. So she did say to thank you all for coming out tonight and I'll deliver the rest of her message later but I know she would have liked very much to have been here. She is complete streets here in Howard County. My name is Liz Wash. I'm on the County Council as well. I'm its vice chair. I represent district one, which includes Ellicott City and the Elkridge area of everyone that featured prominently in Dr. Ball's opening remarks. Okay. Senator Lam said he's out of town. He wanted me to follow his grudging to your team. And let's go. If you have questions with your hands, then let's take turns. I will try to monitor. Okay. Belegio, please go ahead. Thank you. So again, I wanted to thank you all for being here in particularly administrative pines. I just wanted to ask you for the residents, particularly in Algris, who are concerned. You spoke with Delgit Feldmark, Senator Lam, on Monday, you met with Delgit Feldmark, Councilwoman Walsh and me. I'd like you to tell our residents what it is that they should know about how SHA is responding to these recent fatalities. Sure. Thank you again. And I included a little bit of that in my remarks, but I'll just echo that appreciate the letters of support advocating for the project also for the field meetings that we had to kind of walk through and see this live and really get a greater picture of what your constituent needs are. We did the district engineer, and I talked about how we're going to look to see what interim improvement opportunities there may be in terms of things like signing, markings, largely items that would focus on slowing down motorists going through that area in the interim until the larger project would be able to move forward in early next year. I talked about in my remarks as well that this was marked as potentially deferred in the CTP, what does that mean? So a lot of our projects as they advance through the design process, when we seek federal aid from Federal Highway, they do a review at the final stages to determine which of the costs are eligible for federal reimbursement. When they do that evaluation, inevitably all projects have some non-participation costs. We will be very focused through the design of this process to try to keep those non-participation costs as low as possible so that that would allow us to not need state dollars to do this project. And we have, as a state, ample federal funding available for us to do these kinds of safety projects. Our challenge is on the state funding side for the reasons that the secretary noted in his remarks. So just in summary, we're doing everything we can to try to keep the project moving. Number one, number two, we're going to do some interim safety steps. The district engineer and I committed to try to follow up next week. We're still pinning down exactly what type of scope will work at what locations and will provide a timeline for what kind of implementation schedule we could do on those improvements. So happy to have continued conversations as well through that process. But we know the importance of this area along with many other safety locations throughout the state. Part of how we look at pedestrian safety statewide is through the lens of our strategic highway safety plan. That is due for a refresh, which we'll start working on next year. But the current Strategic Highway Safety Plan published within it is our Vulnerable Road User Report. We did kind of address one of the questions about the US-1 corridor and why not projects in Elk Ridge versus where we're doing our P-SAT program. When we laid out the corridors in that vulnerable road user report, at the time that was prepared, the crash data supported that the southern end from a data-driven approach needed the improvement sooner. That's not to say that this wasn't identified. It absolutely was identified as a location within that vulnerable road user report. It just ranked below the southern end of US one in Howard County. So we want to do both though and we're working on both projects and actively trying to figure out how to make sure we maximize the federal funding towards these projects to keep them moving. Just a follow up, thank you. So it may have to be deferred. Can you give us a sense of your best professional guess of if everything goes as planned and we're able to have the state funds to move forward in a timely fashion when you would expect if everything goes as planned to be able to get that actual full project rather than the temporary measures. So the plan start assuming we can work out the funding as you said that contingency would be in the spring of next year. And I believe we said we estimate this is a two season project, correct? There's two separate intersections that are the bulk of the scope, Roland Berry and Dr. Patel, each of those would likely have their own separate season to advance them. I'm telling you to feel a bit more. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I want to thank you all for being here and and thank you, Administrator Pines, for the time we've spent together talking about this. I know the county executive expressed that this was the top priority for Howard County, and I think we can't really stress that enough. You know, this was what I spent most of my time talking about last year when we were here in this meeting, right? And we were trying to understand the delay and what we could do to expedite moving forward. And here we are a year later and tragically with two fatalities in the meantime. And I understand that at this point, a spring construction start is about the the the soonest that we can possibly expect. But I do want to just stress that this is not a potential deferral, right? That is just absolutely not acceptable. And I hope that we can relatively quickly come to agreement that this project is moving forward, that we are doing everything we can to expedite it, and to expedite those interim measures to try to reduce speeds and increase safety until the project can actually be constructed. I don't think we want anything to take away from that. And I don't want to lose sight of the bigger picture and that these two intersections, these two projects that are planned, are not going to make root one in Elkridge a safe place for pedestrians. It will make it safer, but not safe. So we have a lot more work to do and I guess I'm wondering what is the bigger picture. We've been waiting since 2019 for these intersection improvements so so much of the focus has been on these intersection improvements but there is a bigger picture and there's more to that corridor and there's more need for pedestrian improvements, what does the rest of that process look like? So our pedestrian safety action plan, which was published in early 2023, that had, that went through a rigorous data driven process to sort of identify the highest risk corridors throughout the state, that whittled the list down to essentially 23 corridors. We pulled out five that when we first, based on last year's CTP, the outlook was, we could fully fund those. We are still actively working very hard to keep all of the funding in place for those five, but there was $100 million allocated within the CTP to support those five projects. As we move into future years within the CTP to support those five projects. As we move into future years of the CTP, we will continue to apply highway safety improvement program funds to the CTP that will allow us to fund additional P-SAT corridors. We've already identified those first five. We also have seven following it that are identified what we refer to as cohort two but beyond that late the end of 2023 that's when we updated that vulnerable road user report that identified locations throughout district seven which includes Howard, and there were 17 corridors within just this district that were considered high risk themselves. So what we're going to do, we want to handle safety improvements in two fronts. One is systematically and systemically, right? So systematically, we are having these corridor wide improvements like the PSAT program where we're going to come in and try to change the look and feel of that entire corridor and make it to where residents in those areas I keep hitting this mic excuse me they'll they'll feel the difference for that corridor simultaneously with that we will have those systematic statewide improvements that are more spot in nature that will follow that vulnerable road user report. So we're going to do both. We're going to advance corridor-wide improvements and do spot improvements. But a lot of that is going to be driven by the funding available for the implementation timeline. The more funding that is there, certainly we would be able to do more projects. And if I can just as a follow up, one other sort of longer term concern, bigger picture concern, at least some of the delay in these projects has been around procurement and contracting issues, right? And I would like to know what we can do in partnership, if the legislature has to be involved. What we can do to look at recognizing critical safety needs and opportunities to expedite those contracting procedures. So from the prior county study, I think it was in 2019, it had identified the four intersections that were sort of the keys in the Elk Ridge area that needed to be addressed. With that, we packaged the locations that all four into a single contract. However, the sequencing as they rolled out were aligned twofold. One, the first location that was completed, I think it was Gilford that location at that time was the highest priority location based on crashes when it was first implemented. Since then, the data changes, as it always does. And the prioritization of those four may be different today, but we completed those first two in that single procurement. But the last two contracts at Roland Berry and Dr. Patel, they had more complicated utility relocations that were required and real estate transactions that were acquired. So we had a contractor in place, they had a contract for a specific duration. We were fortunately able to complete the utility relocations that are needed for those two intersection improvements, but the duration of the contract was simply going beyond what we could support any more with our contractor. And so we had to end with only those two locations completed and the utility and real estate worked on at the other two locations. We're following behind with that second procurement to complete the actual physical construction for Dr. Patel and Roland Berry. So certainly in terms of support, one of our biggest challenges is always with utilities in real estate. When we talk on projects, there's kind of four key risks that we always sort of manage. Utilities permits, railroads, and I said utilities, I get real estate, real estate, sorry. I got going a little too quick there and lost myself. So it's a challenge. There are potentially legislative solutions there. There's been bills put forward in the past with utility companies and things that could help. But we're operating the environment of the existing laws in terms of completing those kinds of actions. Any bills? That's a good one, Sun. in terms of completing those kinds of actions. Anybody else? Better go Watson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, everyone. And I wanted to first just say or compliment the team that's here on the much better process for the CTP this year, where we are actually discussing a realistic budget, even though we don't like it earlier, and able to give you our feedback, and our citizens are able to give our feedback. So we're very pleased about that. So thank you for that. And on a positive note, MBAs doing a great job. I recently went and had the self-emissions testing experience. Took me two tries, but I did get it. But in Howard County, you can take your car and do a self-test rather than go during the hours that the emission station is open. And I know that's similar across the state, right? So that's a big improvement. And also on the port, Mr. Secretary and Director Gartner, there was just a fabulous, tremendously effective response on the key bridge disaster along with other partners. And certainly we appreciate that. Can't forget the BWI Airport managing its increased traffic very, very well. So all of those things are positive and we thank you for that. But getting into the less positive things on Patel Drive, that intersection, I'm looking at the documents. Am I reading it right that the cost is only 1,750,000? Do you have that number? Our estimate is about a million and a half. Okay. So is it not the money that's the problem here? I mean, a million and a half is not a lot of money in the big scheme of things. So you want to do anything first or just go ahead. So basically, last CTP, we went through and we made reductions to the construction funding, right? The major projects, our system preservation program, the cuts that were implemented, the reductions, deferrals were in construction money. This year, construction money wasn't there. We had to kind of back up on our major projects and get into the D&E funding and then dig deeper into the system preservation program. So I realized that on a project by project basis, it may seem like we're like digging in the couch cushions to find the funding here. Each project individually is a relatively small amount of funding. However, in order to make up the total reduction that's needed, we had to accumulate many, many projects that are impacted. Okay, so it goes beyond state highway. It's all modes have to be saved. Right, so my next question in relation to that is, are you able to move system preservation money from one mode to another? In terms of state dollars, yes. Okay. That's good to know. If the county was interested in moving some of the system preservation money that you have assigned to certain modes, would you be willing to entertain that? Yes, we're willing to work with the county on any option that we can you know work together on You know, we obviously we're we have lots of pressures on projects and different needs across the state I understood we will definitely work with you and I mean I don't want to Put you on the spot director Arnold, but in the system preservation money for transit here that we have assigned to us Right now is all of that critical in your mind In the system preservation money for transit here that we have assigned to us right now Is all of that critical in your mind? I mean all of the projects that we have at this point are really safety critical focused on ensuring the safety and reliability replacements and things like that. I mean the issue is if you don't replace Spouses they end up getting past their useful life breaking more frequently, and it has a disproportionate harm to Riders and bestfully, you know, in Baltimore City, I think the same here in Baltimore County. Our rider profile is 80% low income, the majority people of color, and so it has a very outsized impact on those people. I understand. There's a lot of different bus replacements. There's six and a half million dollars in transit system preservation. So I'm sure the county will dig deeper in that, but I just noticed that in comparison to that million and a half doesn't seem like it's that much money for this project. So we can we can talk about that more. If we go further to another project, which is the Maryland 32 north of Lynn and Church Road, I noticed that we had a cost decrease of 16 million there and that was because of the project closed out activities. And I'm just wondering where that 16 million is going. That would be on page two, I think, of Howard County. It's also where I'll just ask the next question while you're looking it up, but we are, or you all are suggesting we defer the noise mitigation at that location. And I wanted to ask, I don't think Senator Hester is here, she's on her way though, for her, is that noise mitigation for that project required or is the noise there above a certain level and we're not going to do it or can you elaborate it all on that? So this is a tough one. It's a long long topic. I probably need a bigger briefing to kind of bring you up to speed. I understand if you just want to give us the short version. The short answer is yes. The noise wall is a need be commitment for portions of the wall and so it is a need for us to come back and build it. However, we're still within the normal planning horizon where we have time to be able to fund that in the future. Okay, so you have a period of time where you have to do it. You don't have to do it any specific time now. Correct, but that being said, we have had discussions with the community and they would like to move the wall forward. So that's a dynamic conversation that we're... Do you have any idea what that part of the project cost was? I don't have that with me. I'd be happy to follow up with the specific numbers. That would be great. And I guess you don't know where that 16 million is going. Either that we're saving on the project. Yeah, if I could. I mean, you know, the entire program is made up of the library thousands of projects and they're all going up and down. And in terms of schedules as well. So, you know, the end result of that is the shortfall of the 1.3 billion. So it isn't a, like, that this project went out this one, went down, let's just move it over here. You're managing the entire program, and you have different contractual requirements that you've got to meet. So it's, it isn't that we're not looking for those dollars, but it isn't, it also has to be done in the construct of the entire program. We're trying to- That's understood, that's understood. But we are also managing the Howard County projects and the money that you have assigned to Howard County. And I think that bears a little more scrutiny if possible, particularly on Patel Drive because it's just not that much money. Andrew, I think can give a little bit of details on 32 and there were some scope elements that were originally considered in the project like the noise walls that has been paired down. I think that's where the money, why it's not being moved forward, but anything, Andrew, you have on that when you could add? In terms of noise while itself, the total cost is about $5 million. Okay. The designing construction, even on that chest, the chunk of that, the 16.000. That's one less than one third of $5 million. Okay. Design and construction, even on that just to chunk of that $16.00. That's less than 1.30 of the $16 million. Yeah. Okay. The rest of it's due to close out, and we're taking that money, and we're putting it in an important project somewhere. That's the answer, right? We need a detailed breakdown. No, you don't need to. trying to get the big picture. But thank you. OK, and last question. And this is probably not something. It's probably something you're going to have to almost guess at. But if we were able as a state to leverage all of the available federal funds for the projects that we want to do, how much more state money would we need in total? Since about two years from highway size. So there's several different ways of looking at that. So there is how much money would we need? I have a number for how much money we would need to get back to the prior CTP. Okay, that's one level. or how much money we would need to get back to the prior CTP. Right. Okay, that's one level. Then there is what are unfunded needs that we have beyond what we even had in the CTP. Well, let's just talk about the cuts. You know, so let's get to get back to the previous CTP roughly. What would we be talking about in state toll state funds? Yeah, I'm going to have to pull that together. I'll just pull that together. I don't want to tell you a number. I understand. It just would be helpful to know the scope of that as we go into session coming up. That is those are all of my questions for tonight. Thank you. OK. Dalia, good to see you. Thank you. Okay. Kelly, good to see you. Thank you. I did just want to throw out that the village of River Hill is very, very concerned about the noise from 32 now that it's been widened and improved. So I, which doesn't in any way shape or form compete with a death. But it's not as, it's a more important thing than it sounds, I think. I just want to just throw that out. Thank you. I don't think, I'm correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this deferral of noise mitigation is in River Hill. This is north of Lyndon Church Road to I-70. So that may be a different project delegate, Ziegler. I'm not sure I don't really have a whole lot to add other than to emphasize, you know, our priority on this particular intersection, particularly Dr. Patel. That's where the group of us stood today at 430, as the big trucks whipped by is no one even remotely obeyed a speed limit. The interim measures sound great, but I apparently like delegate Phil Mark went back and watched last year, CTP meeting, and interim measures were promised us then to give in the delays already in a project. Before I even was in office five years ago, I was at a Department of Transportation, Office of Transportation meeting about this very project in Elkridge Branch Library with Chrissy Toth of our Office of Transportation. That's how long we've been talking about this problem. And I understand all the obstacles, but whatever it takes to solve it, I'm appreciative of comments like you're still a get-seaguller and you're focused. Courtney, for not, you know, not necessarily even your own district, this is a really big deal that everyone's known about and a really honestly insignificant amount of money to fix a really terrible problem. So I am optimistic that we can figure out the way to get this done as quickly as possible and take the right interim ministers in the meantime because the community is here. Short notice, this isn't usually a community attended event, but it is a very, very big deal. So we appreciate any move forward on that place. Council Member Young. Thank you. First, I want to thank all of you. It's been a rough year. Bridge falls down. You have no money in your budget and you have to cut everything. It is, it's rough. And I want to recognize that. I also want to give you condolences on the loss of your state highway workers. That really hit me personally, just thinking about the fact that we've got DPW workers out there on the roads every day who are working to make our roads safer, to pave, to just do what it is that we're asking them to do in their jobs every single day and that's what we were asking at the state level too and we lost what 12 people over the last year it's just unbelievable to me so I just want to let you know that there are county officials who feel the pain of that loss as well. Now onto my favorite topic, one which I talk about every year, which is BWI. I miss you, Mr know I missed you. Mr. Gartner and I sat together on the BWI roundtable for six years. And I was very grateful for everything that you did during that period of time and all that you did to push forward the PBM process. I'm not here to ask for any money, actually not for penny. But what I would like to see after the PBN process is completed is to go back to the FAA. We now have the new PBM process for departures, which we waited six years for. Arrivals will be coming in September. Sometimes they're already in. They're in. Yes. And here's the joy of this for me and the people in my neighborhoods, it's worse. There's no change. It's actually worse. The first thing I got after the the PBN changes for departures in July were a number of emails talking about, what's happening? What's going on? It's even worse than it was before. And I'm like, oh my God, which is exactly how I felt. We have got to do more when it comes to putting pressure on the FAA. We just can't live like this. The planes are too low low and they're too concentrated to have this highway over our heads every single day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is too much. And Mr. Smith, I am really pleased that BWI is doing so well and that it brings so much money to our economy. But every time you talk about how great it is that BWI is expanding and that we're putting even more planes in the air, my heart is pounding. My stomach is boiling. I am thinking I can't believe we're going to have to deal with even more of these planes. And it's unacceptable. They can do something different. They did. Until next gen, this wasn't something that we were worried about in our community. It wasn't something that was bothering our community. The planes dispersed and they flew higher. They can do that again. And we have got to find a way to put pressure on the FAA. So I'm thinking this is not something I'm asking you all to spend money on. It's something that I'm asking you to pick up the phone, to talk to our US senators, to talk to the head of the FAA, to do everything that you can to relieve the pressure on this community from the plain noise. That's what I'm asking. And needless to say, after listening to everything that has happened on Route 1, I am very much in favor of using whatever $1.5 million we can find to continue this project to make sure that things are safe on Dr. Patel and Rowan Berry. I can't believe I know the names of these two streets. But I do. And it's important. And again, I want to thank you, Mr. Gartner, for all that you did. Publicly, it was very important to this county and appreciate it. Councilwoman, if I can respond to what you said. First of all, I wanna thank you for your advocacy and your support. This has been a challenging nine years as we've been dealing with the flight changes that the FAA made. And I think we share your sentiment that we have to make sure that we continue to work with the FAA to push the FAA to do the most that they can to get this right. The flight path changes have been an effect now for in one case about three months and then another case left on a month. And so what we've told our congressional delegation, what we've told our commissioners and what we're telling others is that we want to give it a few months to experience exactly what is going on. You know, pilots are still learning the new flight pass and so I don't think we've read a position yet to truly evaluate the efficacy of the changes that have been made but we're going to give it a few months. We will evaluate the impact and where there are shortcomings, we will join the round table and go back to the FAA to help them understand that more has to be done. There is a formal process that's ahead of us. And that is what we call a Part 150 study. It is Part 150 of the Federal Aviation Regulation, where airports look at noise impact and we come up with mitigation strategies. And so there will be another opportunity, a formal opportunity for us to work with the round table and work with the FAA to try to improve on the work that's already been done. And so again, we share your sentiment that we have to work with the FDA to do more and we will continue to work until we get this as close to right as possible. Well we will we have a BWI roundtable meeting on September 24th and we will be talking about the Vian air contract that where we will be tracking the noise from last year in comparison to what it looks like now with these PBN changes. And I do hope that at some point too that we can get the, well here I guess here is a little ask for money. I do hope that at some point that we can get that contract paid for by the MAA. Because right now it's being paid for by Howard and Inurendo Counties who are splitting the cost of that. And it's critical to determining whether or not this whole PBM process has been effective. Being able to measure what happened last year and what's happening this year. And has there really been a change in the noise? Thank you all, again, for your hard work. Okay, better get here. Thank you all again for your hard work. Okay, better agree here. Thank you so much. I just want to follow up largely on what Delicate Watson was getting to, but I wanted to direct it to you, Mr. Secretary. I know Administrator Pines has spoken about where his limitations are. Delicate Watson was really suggesting that as a department, if we limit it to the funds that are going in Howard County, you have control over how each of these really important divisions get to hold those savings and where they're spent. And I'm asking and you may not be able to do it tonight, but I'm asking you if you can commit to working with your entire team to see if we can find the 1.5 million that is needed to not simply seek to not further delay what needs to be done at Dr. Patel and Rowan Berry, but to actually accelerate it as the County Executive had requested and if not what would you be willing to commit to tonight? No, excuse me, I am committed to solving this, right? So we're going to work through it. I can't give you the exact answer today, but we're going to work through this. Okay? Okay. I do want to call it, shouldn't you? I have this all over the state, is reality. And it's a challenge. No, that's right. No, no. And so that's why the focus has been on safety. And rethinking how we spend our dollars to make sure we're not convinced ones down. So that is what is going to transpire. Mr. Secretary, we love your commitment on that. So we'll have Senator Hester. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Apologies for being late. I was double book three times tonight. It's really hard to be in three places at once. I had two questions. I understand that you talked briefly about Route 32. And the improvements north of Lyndon Church Road, both a deferral and a decrease of $16 million. And I was wondering, I don't know. I mean, I've worked with my constituents along 32 who have been really impacted by the widening of 32. They're going to be very disappointed to hear about the deferral of the noise mitigation. Are there more details on that? Are we talking like deferral six months, a year, two years? These are people's houses. They have young kids. It's not, I mean, I know times are tough, and there's other safety issues, but this is gonna be a big deal to my constituents. Of course. Can you keep it? We do not have the noise walls currently programmed within the six-year CTP. I really can't speculate beyond that when we would be able to fund it, but certainly if funds were available sooner, that we could apply towards that, then we would look at prioritizing that along with the other types of improvements that we've been discussing tonight. So when were they scheduled? So not in this year's CPT. And this year's CPT, were they expected to be in this year's six year CPT, were they expected to be in this year's? With the six year CTP we had to make a number of reductions this year and we also made reductions last year. And that included deferrals last year. We shifted the timeline of the noise wall out further into what we often call the out years of the six-year CTP and then this year due to the magnitude of the reductions we removed it in its entirety. That doesn't sound good. We do know that it is a NEPA commitment in areas that we need to do, but we are within that planning horizon where we have time technically to fund it and commit to come back and do that. Okay. Well let's continue having that conversation offline and I don't know if there's any funding available per tax in like the Biden infrastructure plan or something. I mean let's just look at resources because I feel like it, for the people whose property was impacted with the 32 widening, they're going to feel like it's kind of like a beaten switch. We did talk about the federal funds a little bit prior, and just echo that briefly. Our challenge is really not with federal funding. The bipartisan infrastructure law, as you mentioned, provides significant federal funds for the needs that we have around the state. It wouldn't do everything that we want to do. Don't get me wrong. But there's a lot that we could accomplish. Our real challenge is with the state funding. And when the majority of the projects that we do require a state match to the project, the reason for that, the feds expect you to have skin in the game, right? They're providing the majority of the funding for project, they want to make sure that you don't take advantage of that and by providing some state funds in a match, it ensures that we treat that very seriously the entire project. And so typically, noise walls are funded on like an 80-20 split, where 80% of the costs will be federal and 20% will be state. But as we discussed earlier, we're at a challenge point where last CTP, we reduced much of the construction program for our majors and those were larger dollars. This year we had to get into the smaller dollars out of our system preservation bucket and the design and engineering phase in order to accumulate enough funds together through a series of projects to provide the reductions necessary. Thanks for the explanation. Can I ask one more chair? The second is a thank you and a question attached to thank you. But we recently got a sign for Rosie's delicatessen off of 32. It's something that my office worked with you on for I think nine months. But it's really important to these small businesses and the limitation was in Koma because they didn't have 20 of the right seats. And the problem, one of the reasons they didn't have 20 of the right seats is because they're on well in septic. And well in septic would allow them to have 20 of the right seats inside the restaurant. And so I get a call about this from a small restaurant in my district at least once a year. Redbird Cafe unfortunately went out of business. They couldn't get a sign. And so I really want to thank your office for getting that sign up. I would like to ask that you look at the Comar Regs and just make sure that you're not unintentionally discriminating against small businesses as a well-inceptic because the signs are for, you know, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, you know, who can afford the big chains and we just really have to do with what we can to help these small businesses, you know, who have limitations imposed on them by government, you know, and just getting them that sign, I mean that could save their business and so I wanted to say thank you for that. Delegate. Better to what is it? Thank you. I want to just clarify one thing as we were talking about the Howard County, you know, piece of the pie, so to speak, I really do believe that we should not be making the decisions that this team here should be making the decisions, taking our feedback. But they are the ones that are qualified, really, to judge one project versus another. And I think that that is what we're saying, correct? We don't want the pen, is what I'm saying. We want them to make their best decisions with our input. The second thing is, I believe it could be wrong, but I think the ballpark number might be about 350 million for the amount that the state would have to have in order to leverage the federal funds over six years. I don't know, that just seems to be something I remember. But let's just say it is. Okay. I want. It's in the reddit. Believe so. Yeah. I want I want us here to understand that. It's it is a crying shame that we are leaving federal money on the table. And the reason we're leaving federal money on the table is because we don't have enough revenue. And what it would take, let's just call it 350 million over six years, although a large portion of that might be in one of the years. It's not evenly split, so to speak. Where do we come up with that revenue? The counties have a tremendous role in this in terms of going to the state and saying, these are our suggested solutions. We want you to do this. We went through a big process last year where the House proposed solutions and we came up with a fairly small compromise compared to what we were proposing. But it's really up to us and the public to understand that we can't just pull money out of the sky that has to come from somewhere. And if we want these improvements, we have to pay for them. And we have to come up with different revenue sources to replace things that are declining, for example. So in my opinion, as a state, we should not be leaving federal money on the table. That's just, that's no way to run a railroad, basically. It's how I feel. So I'm just sharing this with you. You all already know this, of course, but it's really up to us to make that case. And specifically the jurisdictions. Thank you. Thank you, Delic Watson, for your comments. So I have one question. I know we'll talk about a lot of issues in Elk Ridge or Cloxfield, and we know that we are critical to the residents. So we really appreciate the residents from Elk Ridge to support. So my question is, I think about the trifle-light issue on 29 referred age. I just when the trifle-light started, I just feel kind of little weird because on 29 We usually don't have traffic light in Howard County But because some design we put a traffic light there and then several years later We realized just slow down the traffic dramatically and got so many instant there and You know that tells us it's not a good design or plan. So in terms, I know we have some local issues, but at the same time, we have bigger issues like 95, 495, 70, 100. Every day, I just say, sometimes, most times, it's like a mess. Is there any plan from the state that want to do something, have a longer term plan, for example, maybe like overhead pause and express lane, which only have a few exit, for example, in Columbia, in Silver Spring, in Rockfield, because there are a lot of long-term commute in the state and between states. So we don't see see that relief at least in my 20 years in Maryland. There are some things we're doing and want to do in terms of transit, particularly on the pen line and the Camden line. So to deal with some of those long-term issues, we are looking at not necessarily building new roads, but basically trying to maximize the existing roads that we have. A program that we have is an I-70 and the TISMO project, right? Which basically tries to use some of the existing pavements that's there. Beaford upsoaked handle traffic, manage it during peak periods. Not having to use during non-peak periods. It's something that we're doing right now in the Baltimore Beltway, for instance, you've been on that side of it. But I think we're beyond any very large roadway construction in the state, or very mature state, from that perspective. And I think we will have to manage the system through transit, through smart technology, on our highway system, is really on the surface transportation side. That really is our future. And it's not, we're not unique in that. A lot of built up urban areas are in that same place. There isn't the support for major roadway expansion. But yet, we need to deal with the congenitions that we deal with every day. So that we what we need to deal with the conjectures that we deal with every day so that's what we need to focus on. Okay. Any other questions from delegation council? Okay, I move to you. Mr. Dixon. All right. As closes our tour meeting I want to thank Secretary Wifil and your staff bring your team in and actually have this discussion with us I want to thank The state and local Data gets an official is here. Thank you all for coming and voicing Our concerns that we have here for Howard County. I do appreciate it I want to also give thanks to my team who really helped coordinate and put all this together. So thank you. And that'll be the end of this. Thank you. Thank you.