Dive Brief:

• The Maryland Department of Transportation has awarded a $100 million highway contract to a 16-member design-build team, according to Equipment World.

• The team, which includes the Maryland-based Concrete General and CH2M Hill and the Virgnia-based T3 Design Corporation, will work to shave 30 minutes off the average commute time along the portion of Interstate 270 that connects Frederick, MD, with Interstate 495. MDOT said construction will ease 14 bottleneck areas, add 23 miles of lanes and implement technology to give real-time traffic information.

• Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan launched the Innovative Congestions Management Project nearly a year ago to improve traffic flow for the nearly 350,000 vehicles per day that travel that stretch of I-270.

Dive Insight:

Hogan has been engaged in a battle with state lawmakers over a new scoring system for projects like the I-270 initiative. The Maryland Open Transportation Investment Decision Act of 2016, which Hogan has referred to as the "road kill bill," requires that Hogan and his administration score transportation projects based on nine criteria, including environmental impact and transportation access.

Despite any outcome of the scoring process being nonbinding on the governor when he makes his decisions about what projects to fund, Hogan voiced opposition to it from the start and vetoed the bill when it came across his desk. The Maryland Senate overrode the veto last year, and Hogan has since said he will lead efforts to repeal it in 2017.

Meanwhile, Hogan is involved in a dispute regarding how school construction-related funding decisions were made. Last week, he reportedly encouraged two officials to boycott a meeting of a state school construction committee. The move backfired when, without those officials, the committee did not have a quorum and could not approve $113 million in school funding. The delay could impact the timing of school construction projects planed for over the summer break.