The Maryland Transportation Authority, faced with slumping revenue and the increasing cost of maintaining aging roads, tunnels and bridges, has drastically cut back one of its two current "mega-projects" - adding "express toll lanes" to Interstate 95 in the White Marsh area.

The changes eliminate the expensive ramps that would have tied the new lanes into White Marsh Boulevard and the Beltway. The massive new interchange under construction at I-95 and the Beltway would still resemble the proverbial "spaghetti bowl" - but with fewer strands of "pasta."

The authority also cut the overall length of the express lanes, which allow drivers to pay to avoid congestion on the main I-95 roadway, from 10 miles to 8 - ending them at White Marsh Boulevard rather than New Forge Road. Motorists will have to drive the entire 8-mile stretch of express lanes, from Route 43 to Interstate 895, or not use them at all.

Ronald Freeland, executive secretary of the authority, said the changes would reduce the cost of the current project - launched during the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and promoted as a key effort at congestion relief - from $1.4 billion to $900 million. Freeland said that money would be redirected from expansion of the current road network into preservation of the authority's existing roads, bridges and tunnels.

"Quite frankly, we're going to have to reinvest in them," Freeland said in a briefing of the General Assembly.

But Del. Mary-Dulany James, a Harford County Democrat whose constituents were expected to be among the main beneficiaries of the project, expressed dismay at the cutbacks. "It's not going to relieve congestion and help with the flow of traffic as it was originally designed to do," she said.

The money that has been diverted from the express lane project only partially addresses the authority's long-term needs, which are expected to grow along with its debt through much of this decade.

The authority, which operates the state's toll facilities, has projected a substantial increase in tolls in 2011 and a smaller bump in 2013. Legislative budget analysts - though not the authority itself - have outlined a scenario under which tolls for the Baltimore Harbor crossings and the Bay Bridge would double by 2013. In what could be a politically sensitive move, the analysts are urging the authority to re-examine its "generous" commuter tolls, which have remained level despite increases in the base tolls in 2001 and 2003.

One factor driving the pressure to increase tolls is the recent decline in revenue as a result of lighter vehicle traffic at a time of economic weakness. After many years of almost 3 percent annual growth, the number of toll transactions dropped by almost 2 percent last year and is expected to fall another 3 percent this year.Legislative analysts project that it will take almost a decade before the system's existing facilities serve as many customers as they did when they set a record of 120.1 million users in 2007.

Freeland said the ramps connecting the express lanes to the Beltway and White Marsh Boulevard had not been canceled entirely.

"These are deferrals, these are indefinite deferrals admittedly," he said, adding that the express lane connections to the Beltway and White Marsh Boulevard had been projected to meet traffic demand in 2025 rather than current needs.

Freeland acknowledges that the cutbacks to the interstate widening project - envisioned as eventually extending to the Delaware state line - are likely to be accompanied by delays of future phases. That includes the stretch known as Section 200 - from White Marsh Boulevard to Route 22 in Aberdeen - which was the subject of public hearings in 2007 before it was put on extended hold in 2008. There is no money for that project in the state's six-year transportation plan, and the segments beyond Aberdeen are nothing more than vague concepts.

The changes to the I-95 project reflect both a recession-related decline in revenue and a spate of costly findings during inspections of existing toll facilities - much of them built between the late 1930s and the 1970s.

Among other things, according to the authority, those inspections have found significant deterioration to the supporting structures of two Susquehanna River bridges and the Canton Viaduct - an elevated section of Interstate 895 just north of the Harbor Tunnel. Within the past year, the authority has determined that the viaduct needs complete replacement at a cost of $179 million, with work scheduled to start in 2014-2015.

Also in need of major work are Interstate 395 leading into downtown Baltimore and the Gov. Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge, the functionally obsolete Potomac River crossing on U.S. 301 that opened in 1940.

The authority's financial flexibility to respond to these discoveries has been constrained by its commitment to building the $2.6 billion Intercounty Connector - an 18.8-mile toll road linking Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with I-95 in Prince George's County. The ICC project is a leading reason the authority's debt service obligations are expected to roughly double over the next several years.

Freeland said a relatively small part of that project - between I-95 and U.S. 1 - has also been deferred until spring 2013 but most of the ICC is on track to open on schedule. The first phase, from Georgia Avenue to I-270, is expected to open this fall. The section that would complete the connection to I-95 is slated to open in late 2011 or early 2012.

Del. Tawanna P. Gaines, chairman of the transportation budget subcommittee Freeland briefed last week, noted that the ICC had a much more solid financing package in place than the express toll lane project did.

"That ICC is the reason we have all of this debt right now," said Gaines, a longtime critic of the project. "It's making it very, very difficult."

But the Prince George's County Democrat endorsed the authority's decision to shift from expansion to preservation of the existing infrastructure.

"I think that's what they have to do right now with the fiscal contraction that they have," Gaines said. "When that [Interstate 35W] bridge fell in Minnesota [in 2007] it made us all very aware of what could happen if we don't have system preservation."

While the I-95 project has been pared back, its central concept remains unchanged. The authority plans to open it in 2013-2014 - earlier than it would have had the ramps been part of the plan - with two tolled lanes in each direction. Tolls would fluctuate according to demand, going high enough at peak times to keep the express lanes free-flowing. All tolls would be collected electronically - with no tollbooths to slow traffic.

"We're still very excited about the project," said authority spokeswoman Cheryl Sparks. "It is in no way a failure."

Projected toll rates The Department of Legislative Services projects the Maryland Transportation Authority will need toll increases in 2011 and 2013 to meet its obligations. Legislative analysts outlined how the system's need for revenue could affect individual facilities' tolls for two-axle vehicles. The following figures do not represent authority policy: 2001 2003 2011 2013Baltimore Harbor crossings * $1 $2 $3 $4 Nice Bridge (U.S. 301) $3 $3 $5 $5Bay Bridge $2.50 $2.50 $4 $5 I-95, Hatem Bridge (U.S. 40) $4 $5 $6 $6*Key Bridge, Fort McHenry Tunnel, Harbor Tunnel

SOURCE: Department of Legislative Services