NEWS
By Michael Dresser | September 28, 2009
In 2005, foes of the Intercounty Connector raised a little hell about the Ehrlich administration's plans to build the long-delayed highway as a toll road - estimating that a daily end-to-end commuter might face up to $1,500 a year in tolls. "If you're earning $40,000 a year and taking home $30,000 a year, that's 5 percent of your take-home pay," Montgomery County Councilman Phil Andrews said at the time. The public yawned. Proponents accused opponents of using scare tactics. The $2.6 billion project went ahead.
NEWS
September 25, 2009
Maryland commuters - particularly those with thoughts of traveling between I-95 in Laurel and Montgomery County's I-270 technology corridor - received a bit of sticker shock this week. Tolls on the Intercounty Connector could top $6.15 for a one-way trip in peak hours. No Maryland road, bridge or tunnel has ever charged anything approaching that. The most expensive facility currently operated by the Maryland Transportation Authority is the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway, the 48-mile portion of I-95 north of Baltimore where cars face a $5 toll at the Tydings Memorial Bridge, but that's only assessed on northbound travelers; the southbound trip is free.
NEWS
By Meredith Cohn | September 25, 2009
Motorists and their advocates in Maryland say those who drive will decide if the tolls on the new Intercounty Connector are acceptable by using - or not using - the new roadway. The Maryland Transportation Authority proposed Wednesday that drivers using the ICC, which will link Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with Interstate 95-U.S. 1 in Prince George's County, pay 35 cents a mile during peak hours for cars and up to $2.63 per mile for the largest trucks. Some commuters may pay the toll in an attempt to cut travel time, but others, like Matt Buerhaus, think the state is asking too much, considering all the other Maryland taxes and the weak economy that has reduced many people's incomes.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser | August 19, 2009
Night travel between Baltimore and Washington will be slowed over the next few months as work crews close lanes, shift traffic patterns and erect structural steel to build the interchange linking Interstate 95 to the new Intercounty Connector. The closings, which began this week, mark the first significant impact that the $2.5 billion ICC project will have on Baltimore-area travelers. Previously, most of the construction had been along the east-west path of the toll road, which will connect U.S. 1 with Interstate 270 in Montgomery County.
NEWS
By MICHAEL DRESSER | August 3, 2009
For many decades, the Maryland environmental movement has hated the Inter-county Connector with a blinding passion. It was environmentalists' worst nightmare, and the symbol of all that was short-sighted, backward and crassly commercial. They fought the highway proposal in the county councils, at the polls and in the General Assembly and the courts. They almost had it killed in the 1990s, but like a movie zombie it wouldn't stay dead. The opponents finally lost on all counts, and the 18-mile toll road in suburban Washington is now well on its way to completion.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser | July 26, 2009
The same forces that contended in the decades-long struggle over the Inter-County Connector have drawn new battle lines over a $4.6 billion proposal to widen Interstate 270 in Montgomery and Frederick counties - potentially the most expensive transportation project in Maryland history. The proposal to add four express toll lanes to the heavily congested highway - at a cost almost twice that of the $2.6 billion ICC - is drawing the support of Montgomery County business leaders and fierce opposition from environmental groups.
NEWS
By CANDUS THOMSON | April 12, 2009
Stand anywhere along Maryland's version of the big dig and there can be no doubt the Intercounty Connector is finally a reality after more than a half-century of angst. Huge earth-moving machines gouge red clay from what was once rolling hills and woods. Trucks pour rivers of concrete that will be bridges carrying thousands of vehicles between Montgomery and Prince George's counties. These are the obvious things that announce the coming of the 18.8-mile, $2.5 billion toll road with the official state designation of Route 200, better known as the ICC. However, it's the little stuff that has me walking and riding the route with Mike Baker, the project's environmental engineer.
NEWS
December 17, 2008
Adult education funding can jump-start renewal The Maryland Association for Adult, Community and Continuing Education agrees with Erik Christiansen that education is vital to the future success of America and the state of Maryland ("More than just jobs," Commentary, Dec. 11). The current economic crisis has given us all a chance to pause to consider what the true priorities should be for government spending. Mr. Christiansen understands education's fundamental role and its significance in contributing to our economy: According to U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2005, workers 18 and over with a bachelor's degree earn an average of $51,206 a year; those without a high school diploma averaged $18,734.
NEWS
By Neil J. Pedersen | October 10, 2008
Despite recent claims to the contrary, Maryland's Intercounty Connector - expensive though it surely is, at $2.4 billion - will deliver a very strong return on investment to Maryland residents, including many residents of the Baltimore metropolitan area. According to U.S. Census data, more than 130,000 people from greater Baltimore commute to the Washington area every day, many to jobs on the Interstate 270 technology corridor. Traffic forecasting illustrates the enormous benefit these travelers will experience from the ICC. The ICC will provide a much-needed link from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport to the Washington metropolitan region, ensuring long-term economic benefits for Maryland.
NEWS
September 29, 2008
Better mobility boosts economy In "ICC? It's time to see to more urgent needs instead" (Sept. 21), Dan Rodricks seems to have forgotten that the Intercounty Connector - which will be the most environmentally sensitive road ever built in Maryland - will support regional jobs and statewide mobility that will help Montgomery County and its neighbors continue to deliver the significant tax revenue that helps fund everything else in the state. So the ICC will, in the long run, be just as useful to Baltimore's success as the current $1.1 billion Interstate 95 toll road project north of Baltimore, or the state's payment of a huge percentage of the city's transportation costs.