60 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

Federal Assistance — Enabling legislation is being submitted to
permit Maryland to receive the full benefits of the Federal Highway
Safety Act of 1966. The State stands to gain substantial assistance for
traffic safety programs if it complies, and if it fails to comply it could
be penalized with an annual loss of up to $6 million in Federal aid
for highway construction. In this connection, I will shortly designate
a State Highway Coordinator pursuant to the Federal guidelines.

NEWS RELEASE ON LEGISLATION FOR ADDITIONAL

CHESAPEAKE BAY BRIDGES, A SECOND BALTIMORE

HARBOR TUNNEL, AND SCHEDULING PRIMARY ROADS

February 24, 1967

The Agnew administration will seek legislation at the current ses-
sion of the Maryland General Assembly to allow the State Roads
Commission to build additional crossings of the Chesapeake Bay and
Baltimore Harbor and to start immediately the preliminary engineer-
ing and acquisition of rights-of-way for them.

The bill, to be introduced Friday, will carry authorization for three
new toll bridges across the Bay — a northern and a southern crossing
and one parallel and adjacent to the present span between Sandy
Point and Kent Island.

The same bill will provide for a second crossing of the Baltimore
Harbor, and allow the State Roads Commission to assign priority to
all four projects as it might determine their need from up-to-date
traffic studies and the limits of bonding authority.

Voters rejected at the last election a Tawes administration bill
which would have allowed construction of a parallel Chesapeake Bay
bridge "and other crossings, " with the principal emphasis on the
parallel span.

Governor Agnew, in announcing plans today for the new legislation,
said there is no question that Maryland is going to need all of the
additional crossings as soon as it can build them on a practicable basis.
Meanwhile, he said, land acquisition costs are "skyrocketing. "

"So far there has been a lot of heat and not much light on this
subject, " the Governor said. "It is time we stopped denouncing, ac-
cusing and obstructing and began an examination of the true facts.