Icc

Q: Despite the state's budget crunch, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is moving ahead with plans to build the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County. Would you prefer to see Maryland invest in this and other highway projects, or in public transit initiatives such as the Baltimore regional rail plan and the maglev line? It is long past time to build the Intercounty Connector. This road has been planned for more than four decades to provide grade-separated, limited access transportation from Interstate 270 to Interstate 95 and beyond.

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.

A federal judge gave Maryland the go-ahead yesterday to begin construction of a long-debated highway in the Washington suburbs, flatly rejecting environmentalists' challenges to the $2.4 billion project. Judge Alexander Williams Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt denied the plaintiffs' request for an injunction against the Intercounty Connector, a six-lane, 18.8-mile toll road connecting the Interstate 95 corridor with Interstate 270 in Montgomery County. The judge's decision, unless overturned in what would be a long-shot appeal, removes the final obstacle to construction of the Laurel-to-Gaithersburg highway, first included in Washington-area transportation plans in 1953 as part of an Outer Beltway around Washington.

SHADY GROVE -- More than 50 years after the road was first proposed, the federal government has signed off on construction of the 18-mile Intercounty Connector through the Washington suburbs, a jubilant Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced yesterday. Waving off the catcalls of protesters - some of whom stand to lose their homes to build the highway - Ehrlich said the $2.4 billion ICC will bring thousands of new jobs in addition to relieving traffic congestion in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

ROCKVILLE -- The Montgomery County Council is trying to pull the dirt out from under the Intercounty Connector by turning a portion of the path of the proposed highway into a park. The council yesterday directed the local Planning Board, which owns about 190 acres in the middle of the ICC corridor, to begin the process of removing the project from the county's transportation plans and redesignating the land as a park. Five council members say the bipartisan resolution will effectively kill plans for a $1.2 billion east-west highway connecting Montgomery and Prince George's County.

You've got to give credit to the members of the Montgomery County Council. They're sticking up for their constituents over the issue of tolls on the Intercounty Connector. If only other elected officials were doing the same. The Montgomery Council recently voted to urge the Maryland Transportation Authority to back off its plans to charge ICC tolls at the level that the authority's consultant figures the market will bear. That comes to as much as 35 cents a mile at peak drive times - which would translate into about $6 for a one-way, end-to-end trip when the highway fully opens in 2011-2012.

Alleging that the Ehrlich administration violated federal environmental law, opponents of the proposed Inter-County Connector said yesterday that they will soon file a lawsuit to block construction of the Washington-area toll highway. The Audubon Naturalist Society and other plaintiffs notified the State Highway Administration that they would ask a federal judge to prevent construction of the ICC. They argue that its approval was based on a flawed environmental study. This is the second of two planned legal challenges to the proposed $2.4 billion highway connecting Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg and Interstate 95 in Laurel.

Gearing up for a fight over Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s top transportation priority, a coalition of environmental groups said a new highway is the worst of six alternatives for relieving traffic congestion in the Washington suburbs, according to a report it released yesterday. The report on the proposed Intercounty Connector, an east-west highway that would link Interstate 95 with I-270, is the first installment in the environmental advocates' formal response to the Ehrlich administration's draft environmental impact statement, which was released in November.

Q: What input has the State Highway Administration received from Anne Arundel County regarding the proposed Intercounty Connector? A: None as of Thursday. The proposal to construct an 18-mile highway link between Interstate 270 in Montgomery County and Interstate 95 in Prince George's County has been deliberated for decades and is the top transportation priority of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Proponents of the estimated $2 billion Intercounty Connector, or ICC, say such a link would reduce road congestion and generate development.

The Ehrlich administration has concluded that Maryland can build a proposed highway in the Washington suburbs with far less environmental damage than a similar study showed under former Gov. Parris N. Glendening. In a summary released yesterday, the Maryland Department of Transportation said its draft environmental impact statement for the Inter-County Connector has concluded that by stressing "environmental stewardship" the state can minimize the road's harm to water quality and public parkland.