ICC

A new report by an anti-sprawl group warns that building the Intercounty Connector highway in the Washington suburbs could prevent Maryland from tackling traffic congestion elsewhere, while diverting growth from Baltimore and the District of Columbia to the suburbs along the road. The report, commissioned by 1000 Friends of Maryland, cautions that the ICC's $2.4 billion price tag could jeopardize the state's ability to pay for other highway and transit projects, especially those planned to handle thousands of new jobs and households coming to the Baltimore area in the next several years with military base realignment.

Negotiators from the House of Delegates and state Senate have deadlocked over what to cut from Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget proposal, setting up a last-minute showdown over funding for stem cell research, the University System of Maryland and the Intercounty Connector. The key to the impasse is O'Malley's plan to delay a $53 million payment for the ICC, a long-awaited road connecting Interstates 270 and 95 through Montgomery County. The governor has said the payment, which is required by law, is not needed this year, and he asked the legislature to authorize a delay so the money could be used for other needs.

ROCKVILLE -- They've said it once and they'll say it again: the $1.1 billion Intercounty Connector from I-95 to I-270 is a dead end.In its strongest action, the Montgomery County Council passed a resolution yesterday opposing the Intercounty Connector (ICC) and calling on Gov. Parris N. Glendening to stop buying land for it. The vote was 5-2, with one abstention. The council president recused himself, as he always does on ICC matters, because he owns land in the corridor."This is the ultimate example of wishful thinking in transportation planning.

Bowing to political and legal reality, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has essentially abandoned his plan to sell parcels of a state-owned right of way in an effort to kill the long-debated Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County, aides said yesterday.A legal opinion from the Maryland attorney general's office confirmed yesterday what Glendening administration officials had already concluded -- the governor needs the approval of the Maryland Board of Public Works to sell "most, if not all" of the state's properties purchased for the road.

EVER SINCE Gov. Parris N. Glendening killed the Intercounty Connector in September, his lieutenant governor has limited her views on the matter to a terse sentence or two.But at a town meeting for the Asian-American community in downtown Silver Spring last week, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend found her tongue.With little prompting, she launched a spirited defense of Glendening's decision, saying the governor "could spend 10 years and millions of dollars on litigation or spend the money on getting [other]

Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer stepped up his criticism yesterday of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's plan to abandon the proposed Intercounty Connector to link Montgomery and Prince George's counties.During a meeting of the Board of Public Works, Schaefer attacked Glendening's "erroneous decision" to kill the 17-mile, $1.5 billion highway and sell some of the land the state purchased for its construction.In an unusual upstaging of the governor, who heads the three-member board, Schaefer and state Treasurer Richard N. Dixon voted to pass a resolution supporting the connector, known as the ICC."

ONE ASPECT OF THE debate over the billion-dollar Intercounty Connector bugs me. It's the claim that, without the ICC, Maryland is doomed to become an economic backwater. The pro-highway crowd, those conservative suits who are always bellyaching that Maryland has an anti-business climate, say we need the ICC to connect companies in the job-rich, high-tech I-270 corridor in Rockville to I-95, the port of Baltimore and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.This is where I pull over to ask a few questions.

LAUREL -- When supporters of the Intercounty Connector dream of the future, they see Philadelphia.West of that city is a 21-mile highway that neighborhoods, woods and archaeological sites could not stop. Interstate 476 -- also known as the Blue Route -- weathered 30 years of federal review and legal challenges before making the jump from concept to concrete.In Maryland, the ICC remains in political limbo.Gov. Parris N. Glendening withdrew his support and declared it dead, but has been blocked from selling land in the road corridor by pro-ICC officials.

In killing the ICC, the governor shows a limited visionAs a strong supporter of the Master Plan Alignment for the Intercounty Connector (ICC) since entering public office in 1991, I am extremely disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, that Gov. Parris N. Glendening has decided not to proceed with the ICC.While this road is controversial, it is also vital to the economic fortunes of the capital region and critical to enable its citizens to commute safely...

Killing the ICC could lead to better, safer transportationGov. Parris N. Glendening should be congratulated on his decision to kill the Intercounty Connector ("ICC road plan killed," Sept. 23).This can be the first step toward a visionary public mass transportation system for Maryland that will serve the state for decades to come, until future technology brings us better and cleaner transportation.According to the Maryland State Highway Administration, we've built almost 30,000 miles of roads in Maryland since 1960, more than 5,200 of them in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.