Icc

Motorists won't be able to drive on the Intercounty Connector until late this year or early in 2011, but on Oct. 17, runners and walkers will be able to use it as part of a fundraising event for the Special Olympics Maryland. The state will open part of the first phase of the ICC — between Shady Grove and Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County — for a 5-kilometer walk/run that Sunday, starting at 9 a.m. According to the State Highway Administration, nearly 200 people have registered so far, bringing $6,000 in pledges.

The Maryland Transportation Authority has come in on the low end of its proposed range of tolls on the Intercounty Connector as it prepares to open the highway's first segment around the beginning of 2011. The authority announced Friday that it will charge 25 cents per mile at peak periods for a typical passenger vehicle to travel between the Interstate 270 corridor and Georgia Avenue. That's about $1.45 for the 5.6-mile stretch. The authority board had adopted a policy allowing peak rates to be set in a range of 25 to 35 cents, and the high end would have meant a toll of about $6 for a trip between the I-270 corridor and Interstate 95 when the second segment of the highway is opened in late 2011 or early 2012.

Prince George's County Council members say officials overseeing construction of the Intercounty Connector are penalizing the county by canceling or changing more of its environmental projects than those in Montgomery County. ICC officials said they plan to cut some previously required environmental projects and to reclassify others because the highway's final design ended up sparing almost a mile more of streams and 30 more acres of wetlands and forests than they had expected, leaving less environmental damage for them to offset.

Drivers on the new Intercounty Connector highway linking the Washington suburbs could be paying among the nation's highest tolls, as the Maryland Transportation Authority approved Thursday a plan to charge two-axle vehicles up to 35 cents per mile during peak travel times. Brushing aside complaints that its proposed tolls were too steep, the nine-member authority that oversees Maryland's bridges, tunnels and toll roads approved a variable rate plan for the ICC with few changes from what it had unveiled in September, though it did set a new "overnight" rate as low as 10 cents per mile.

The opening of the first phase of the Intercounty Connector is not expected before October, but Maryland is preparing for its debut by ordering 18 "clean diesel" commuter buses for eventual transit service on the highway. The Maryland Department of Transportation's recently awarded $9.1 million contract for purchase of the buses from Motor Coach Industries of Schaumburg, Ill., will go to the state Board of Public Works for approval next week. Rather than have the Maryland Transit Administration operate the buses, the department plans to hand the job to a private contractor in an arrangement similar to that on its existing commuter bus routes.

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.

The ICC is intended to be a highway for rich people ("ICC was always intended to exclude most people," Nov. 2) and is supposed to be paid for with exorbitant tolls. Now we are told that we will all have to pay for it via increased tolls on all roads ("Jump in Md. tolls likely after 2010," Nov. 16). You don't have to read between the lines to conclude that all of us will be paying for a highway intended for rich people. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?