The Transportation Planning Board added more than $1 billion in projects for the District to the region’s long-range transportation plan, according to officials.

The stratagem, called the Constrained Long Range Plan, estimates about $4.5 billion will be available each year for the next 24 years to complete projects in Maryland, Virginia and the District. Projects can only be added to the board’s long range plan if there is a solid funding mechanism in place.

Due to the lack of funds, Maryland and Virginia did not add many new projects, said Ronald Kirby, the region’s transportation planning director.

“It is a real important reality check for everybody. It tells you what you can afford and what you cannot. There area a lot of projects people are talking about out there, but aren’t on the plan because there is no money for them,” Kirby said.

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The District was able to add four major projects to the plan this year due to a lot of local bonding and federal funding, said Michelle Pourciau, District Department of Transportation director and TPB’s vice chair.

All of the new projects are within the Anacostia Waterfront revitalization and will add better connections to the surrounding neighborhood, Pourciau explained.

The 11th Street Bridge will be reconstructed by 2011, according to the plan. Rehabilitation of 11th Street itself, and the Frederick Douglass bridge, will be completed in 2015.

The study and building of a portion of a new streetcar line from Anacostia to the new ballpark was also included.

“This project will do something else that we are very proud of in D.C. — begin to really renew our infrastructure like we have never done before,” Pourciau said.

Virginia added a study looking at High Occupancy Toll lanes between D.C. and Fredericksburg and improvements to the interchange of Route 28 and Interstate 66.

Residents should soon see improvements to other areas of the Route 28 corridor, where tax districts are paying to remove traffic lights and build new interchanges, said Catherine Hudgins, a Fairfax County supervisor.

“Those improvements are critical to western movement of traffic,” she said.

For Maryland, the board approved the cross-county connector in Charles County and a widening of Route 201 in Prince George’s. Those projects “are important projects to improve, but there’s a lot more that ought to be on that list. That is the point,” said Michael Knapp, board chair and Montgomery County council member.

Funding over the past three years

» Federal funding remained the same at 27%

» State funding reduced from 43% to 32%

» Local funding increased from 11% to 17%

» Transit fares decreased from 18% to 17%

» Tolls and private funding increased from 1% to 7%

» Construction costs increased by 28%

Source: COG’s Transportation Planning Board

cgoodman@dcexaminer.com