GREAT MILLS — Senator Roy Dyson (D. St. Mary’s, Calvert), will sponsor a bill in the coming session of the General Assembly to have the State build a second span of the bridge at Solomon’s Island.

In 1977 the lower Patuxent River bridge, named for Governor Thomas Johnson, was opened for traffic with a two lane road leading to it from both sides.

Dyson, who’s district spans the Patuxent River, including all of St. Mary’s County, the southern half of Calvert and a sliver of Charles County leading to the Benedict Bridge, which also crosses the Patuxent, says the present bridge was a great idea for the traffic of the 1960’s but isn’t keeping up with the economy and demands of the 21st Century.

"We saw the bridge built to make up for the elimination of slot machines in Southern Maryland," said Dyson. "Now we need another span with three lanes, not only for our local economy, but due to the competitive nature of the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission) and for our national security."

"This highway is a real key part of our approach to the base, NAVAIR and is important to our national defense," said Dyson, "as well as being an evacuation route for the nuclear power plant in a time of an emergency."

Dyson said he will be introducing a bill in the coming session of the General Assembly and will be reintroducing a transportation bill which passed the Senate and was stalled in a key House committee last year.

Dyson’s bill, called for a transportation study task force to bring about commuter rail in Southern Maryland. The bill was cosponsored by Senator Thomas Mac Middleton (D. Charles) and supported by a wide variety of local officials.

"From the time that the bridge opened in 1977, the missions on the base has changed from being home to about 8,000 employees to having approximately 20,000 employees on base and thousands more working in a mushrooming defense contractor community in Lexington Park and California."

"The State has built massive road projects in Montgomery County, in Western Maryland and throughout the Baltimore area, as well as the Eastern Shore," said Dyson. "With Southern Maryland being the fastest growing area of the state and home to our most important military base in Maryland, we must meet the challenge of providing efficient transportation for our commuters and commerce."

Dyson’s latest legislative initiatives continue to reflect the growing traffic woes of the region. He sponsored a bill which passed both the House and Senate in 1998 requiring the state to prepare a feasibility study for preserving the old Navy railroad right-of-way which runs to Lexington Park from Brandywine.

The old Navy railroad right-of-way connects to the CSX railroad branch line at Brandywine. The CSX line passes through Cheltenham on its way from the Potomac River at Morgantown, going through Waldorf and Upper Marlboro.
Dyson and Congressman Steny Hoyer have been working to convince CSX officials to allow the state to use their freight lines from Morgantown and Aquasco for passenger rail service. They have met with Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and gained his support for the proposal.

Dyson’s proposal to build a second span over the Patuxent River at Solomon’s from Seven Gables on the St. Mary’s side of the river, would put an end to the daily backups which take place in morning and evening rush hours.

Each evening rush hour, jams of vehicles back up onto Rt. 235 from Rt. 4 as three lanes of traffic merge to one on the southern side of the bridge, and two lanes merge to one from the north in the morning.

Last week when an expansion joint broke on the bridge, tires were flattened on numerous vehicles and the State Highway Administration attempted a repair on the bridge at 3:30 in the afternoon. Traffic backed up to the main gate in Lexington Park before officials realized that the repair needed to be done at night when traffic is light.

The Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge was closed for repairs in July of 1988, staying closed for three months, as giant steel bands were placed around the top of the support columns of the bridge. The columns had developed stress cracks and the SHA deemed the bridge unusable until the repairs were completed.

Without any type of effort made to provide car ferry service across the Patuxent, small boats carrying 20 to 30 passengers worked back and forth connecting to parking lots and shuttle buses.