Project Terminology
High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes:
Dedicated managed lanes within highway right-of-way that single occupancy vehicle motorists may use by paying a variably priced toll or multi-occupant vehicles may use by paying a discounted toll or no toll at all.
General Purpose Lanes:
Travel lanes that all vehicles can use free of charge at any time.
High Occupancy Vehicle 3+ (HOV 3+):
For the HOT lanes in Phase 1, vehicles with three or more occupants can use the lanes for free. This includes carpools, vanpools, transit buses and motorcycles.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA):
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental impact of their proposed actions.
Op Lanes Maryland:
The rebranded name for the I-495 & I-270 Public-Private Partnership (P3) Program. Op Lanes Maryland includes all of I-495 and I-270 in Maryland. More information may be found here: oplanesmd.com
Impervious surface:
This refers to the use of pavement materials that do not allow water from rains or snow melt to permeate into the ground and instead all water runoff goes into storm drains and rivers.
Public-Private Partnership (P3):
A P3 is a partnership between the public or governmental sector with private entities. The P3 seeks to harness private sector expertise, innovation and funding in order to deliver public infrastructure for the benefit of the public owner and users of the infrastructure. P3s seek to successfully leverage the respective strengths of the public and private sectors to deliver large, complex infrastructure projects in a cost effective and timely fashion. Read more about MDOT’s P3 program at mdot.maryland.gov/tso/.
Phase Developer:
AM Partners is the Phase Developer selected by the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) to manage the predevelopment work and deliver Phase 1 of the New American Legion Bridge I-270 Traffic Relief Plan.
As the Phase 1 Developer, AM Partners will further advance predevelopment work and preliminary design and minimize impacts on the first section, which includes from the vicinity of the George Washington Memorial Parkway across the American Legion Bridge to I-270 and on I-270 up to I-370.
Predevelopment work:
AM Partners will execute predevelopment work activities that include: development of design and schedule; supporting MDOT in community outreach and engagement; further minimizing impacts to property, communities, and environmental resources; developing detailed cost estimates and traffic and revenue studies; creating financing arrangements; and developing regional transit services that will be included in Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with the affected counties.