Court throws out enviros' suit to block start on Maryland Inter County Connector tollroad

US District Court in Maryland has thrown out a late law suit lodged by a bunch of environmentalist groups against USDOT's permitting of the Inter County Connector (ICC) tollroad north of the District of Columbia. Judge Alexander Williams in a 106 page judgment concludes that "there is no legal or equitable basis to prevent the Inter-County Connector from moving forward."

Contrary to claims by the greens, USDOT had complied with statutory and regulatory requirements, Williams wrote.

Work on the $2.7b project has begun, but pending today's decision Maryland State Highway Administration had the contractors under orders to confine their activity to reversible work.

Now it's full throttle for the big yellow machines.

The Inter County Connector is an east-west tollroad from I-270 in Gaithersburg to I-95 and US-1 in Laurel. It is 29km (18mi) 3+3 lanes and will deploy all electronic tolling - no cash toll booths. It is located mostly in wealthy Montgomery County though its eastern end is in Prince Georges Co.

The ICC will provide vital connectivity and mobility to a developed suburban area plagued by lack of a modern east-west link.

COMMENT: A victory for mobility, quality of life, safety, and commonsense over the incorrigible obstructionists.

The highlight of the environmentalist farce was when the USEPA invoked a supposed threat to brown trout as an argument against a chosen route for the ICC.

The trout had survived construction of the Capital Beltway downstream even though it was built in the 1950s in complete disregard for their welfare. By contrast ICC bridges and streamwork were meticulously designed with fish welfare uppermost.

Then it turned out that the USEPA's brown trout are an introduced species, treated many places as an invasive threat to native trout.

They have been the subject of a prolonged extermination campaign by the National Park Service in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park further down the Appalachians.

The Court ruling is downloadable as a 106 page pdf file

http://www.mdd.uscourts.gov/Opinions152/Opinions/06-3386%20Memo%20Op%20DENY%20PL%20MSJ.pdf

And here is a summary of some of the main points in the ruling.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-11-08