Hughesville Bypass opening hailed by region’s pols

Friday, Aug. 17, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Gary Smith Politicians lined up Wednesday morning to cut a ribbon and formally open the Hughesville bypass. From the left are Charles Commissioner Gary V. Hodge, Charles commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper, Del. Murray D. Levy, Sen. Roy P. Dyson, Transportation Secretary John Pocari, U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Del. John L. Bohanan Jr., St. Mary’s Commissioner Larry Jarboe, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, St. Mary’s Commissioner President Jack Russell, Del. Sue Kullen, St. Mary’s Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly and Del. John F. Wood Jr. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

His audience sat patiently perspiring in the record-breaking morning heat, slowly roasting over the fresh black asphalt of the Route 5 Business off ramp on the south side of Hughesville.

Brown stepped to the podium at the Aug. 8 event and proceeded, over the drone of vehicles behind him, to deliver his entire speech marking the opening of the Route 5 Hughesville bypass, a $56 million project that was more than two decades in coming.

‘‘It’s a hot morning here in Southern Maryland,” Brown observed before launching into an explanation of how the new bypass will continue to serve the region in its quest to keep and grow its military bases.

Brown said that Maryland, on balance, gained jobs in the last round of federal base closures as the military moved operations inside the state’s borders. Brown said the state will gain 60,000 new jobs and 28,000 new households in the coming years as a result of military consolidation, but warned that leaders need to prepare for the next round of closures.

‘‘It’s been and will continue to be a source of opportunity for Maryland as well as a source of challenges,” Brown said of base closures. ‘‘We are ready, and we will continue to prepare ourselves.”

Brown said that the Southern Maryland leadership’s united support of the Hughesville bypass served as a model to other regions of the state that are looking to improve their infrastructure to defend against base closures.

‘‘In order to succeed, we need to have a regional approach,” Brown said.

The speakers that followed Brown paid more deference to the weather.

‘‘I’m sure you all are looking forward to a long speech from me,” joked U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th), who discarded his two-page speech in favor of simply recognizing former state senator J. Frank Raley (D-St. Mary’s) and Charles County Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D).

Hoyer credited the two men with backing and lobbying for the bypass as a defense against base closures in the 1990s. Though brief, the gravity of Hoyer’s remarks was not lost on Hodge.

‘‘I appreciated the recognition of Lt. Governor Brown and Congressman Hoyer for the work we did at the Tri-County Council [for Southern Maryland] more than 10 years ago, when we put together the region’s infrastructure priorities,” Hodge, the organization’s former director, said later. ‘‘The Hughesville bypass was one of the projects at the top of our list.”

The cooperative regional effort to get the bypass built was referenced again by Sen. Thomas ‘‘Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) when he noted that, because of the cooperation between Southern Maryland counties, ‘‘this was probably the least controversial project in the state.”

Sen. Roy P. Dyson (D-St. Mary’s, Calvert, Charles) agreed.

‘‘We all came together and said this is our No. 1 priority,” he said.

Even with all the lanes and ramps open, the Hughesville project is still about two months away from completion. State Highway Administration crews still must finish landscaping and installing panels on southbound sound wall, which currently consists of a series of steel posts.

Once all work is complete, SHA officials said that the speed limit would be increased.

E-mail Jay Friess at jfriess@somdnews.com.