A new bridge will be great, but we can still use the old bridge

Then-Maryland Transportation Secretary Greg Slater was told in an email how to win approval of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan: “Perhaps we can offer them the old bridge for bicycles and save on the cost of demolishment,” Allen Garman, the Maryland Transportation Authority’s director of treasury and debt, said. Likewise, Jim Ports, then the executive director of the authority, voiced concerns about not wanting to waste public funds. Yet the Maryland Transportation Authority plans to spend $15 million to $23 million to destroy the existing Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas “Mac” Middleton Bridge, which should be given more consideration for conversion to a pedestrian/bicycle facility that will provide a missing connection at a fraction of the cost for a new structure.