Washingtonians spend a lot of time worrying about traffic and getting around the region. So do elected officials and regional planners. But few of them spend much time thinking about how to move around anything but people. Transportation officials said Wednesday that it’s crucial for the region to start thinking about how to move freight, which keeps the region functioning but bogs down local roads.
Part of the problem is that the region doesn’t manufacture many goods and imports more than it sends out.
| Local projects planned | ||
| • | CSX: Expand the Virginia Avenue Tunnel on Capitol Hill so it can fit double-stack trains side by side. | |
| • | Norfolk Southern: Build a 5.8-mile second rail line from Manassas to Balls Ford Road in Prince William County to alleviate a chokepoint. | |
| • | D.C.: Upgrade commercial curbside loading zone rules and build a weigh station to make sure trucks adhere to road limits. | |
| • | Maryland: Increase Interstate 70’s capacity from the West Virginia line to Baltimore and relieve Interstate 95 congestion from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to Howard County. | |
| • | Virginia: Relocate ramps from Interstate 66 to Interstate 495, currently a major bottleneck for trucks forced to exit there. | |
| Source: National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board | ||
“We buy a lot of things. We eat a lot of things. We produce a lot of paper and waste and these require trucks,” said Donald Ludlow, who studies freight trends for Cambridge Analytics.
It’s just going to get worse as the region grows, experts warned. For every extra person, an additional 40 tons of freight is needed annually, according to Quintin Kendall, a regional vice president from the CSX railroad company. That’s everything from the food they eat to the gravel for the roads on which they drive and the steel in the office buildings where they work.
Such cargo travels by ocean, by air and by train. But it often needs a truck to finish the job.
“There’s no substitute for trucks,” Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Director of Transportation Planning Director Ronald Kirby told The Washington Examiner. “That’s a major reminder if we don’t provide extra road capacity, we’ll have a hard time getting trucks into some of our neighborhoods.”
For example, FedEx started flying its packages into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport because it couldn’t guarantee its 10 a.m. deliveries if its delivery trucks had to wade through morning traffic from Washington Dulles International Airport, said Leo Schefer with the Washington Airports Task Force.
Some traffic policies may make it more difficult for freight, they said. High-occupancy toll lanes usually exclude trucks, meaning they get bogged down in traffic. Traffic-calming devices also can slow down deliveries.
Experts said the region needs to expand the freight rail network to reduce pressure on the roads — and think creatively to stretch resources.
Schefer said officials have asked Metro whether cargo could be shuttled around the Metro system during off hours. Another proposal suggested off-hour truck deliveries as a pilot project did in Manhattan to reduce average delivery time from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes.
