After decades of diligent advocacy, community members in Montgomery County have finally deleted a proposed new highway from the County’s Master Plan of Highways and Transitways!
The proposed highway in question was the M-83, the Mid-County Highway Extended, which was a six-mile, planned-but-unbuilt, six-lane highway with a $1.37 billion price tag. It would have cut through park land and drinking water sources; damaging water quality, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and spending enormous financial resources that could go toward public transit instead.
For almost 50 years, fierce opposition has blocked almost every segment of this damaging road from being built. A few years ago, Clean Water Action teamed up with the TAME Coalition, the group leading the charge, to finally remove M-83 from Montgomery County’s plans.
Although the highway proposal had sat dormant for years, the fact that it still existed in the County’s plans meant that construction on the project could move forward at any time. So in 2022, when TAME saw the risk that an influx of transportation money from the federal government could revive this outdated highway, they stepped into action with urgent concern.
Clean Water’s canvass went door to door in neighborhoods adjacent to the potential highway to bring information to directly to the people. We hiked with TAME and local elected officials along the proposed route, through forests, streams, and hiking trails accessible to the nearby neighborhoods, to witness the enormous negative impact the highway would have. And yesterday, all of that hard work paid off.
2025 seems to be the year of payoff for long term, grassroots campaigns. Between the hard work of anti-incineration activists finally ending subsidies for trash incineration in Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard and the long-term dedication of the volunteers at the TAME Coalition and throughout Montgomery County, we have seen the power of persistence. Our team at Clean Water Action has been thrilled to be able to support these efforts along the way.
Thank you to everyone who contacted their county council members, testified at public hearings, and took action in so many other ways. Victories like these aren’t possible without you!
