Enviros give up law suits on Inter County Connector tollroad in Maryland

Environmentalists have run up the white flag and agreed to end obstructionist efforts against the Inter County Connector (ICC) tollroad in Montgomery County Maryland, 15 miles (25km) north of the White House. Maryland DOT today announced an agreement with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) the leading opponent of the $2,445m road, under which EDF terminates its law suits in return for:

- Maryland DOT spending up to $1m on a three year air quality monitoring study to establish the sources of PM2.5 particulates

- contributing up to $1m help on retrofitting modern exhaust emission to school buses in the area

EDF claims it has got "vital public health benefits" out of the settlement, while Maryland state highways administrator Neil Pedersen called it "yet another facet of the unprecedented environmental protection and stewardship that is a hallmark of the ICC project."

He says the ICC will be "one of the greenest highways in history."

$370 million or over 15% of the total cost of the $2,445m project (FY2007 cost estimate) will go for various environmental mitigations and improvements, many of them improving water quality of streams damaged by housing and industrial developments over the past several decades.

The EDF settlement makes that $372m.

A very cheap settlement!

The EDF and associated lawsuits were filed in December 2006 against the Federal Highway Administration and claimed that the environmental impact statement for the ICC was faulty. MSHA got accepted as a party and carried the case for the ICC in US District Court.

In November 2007 the court ruled in favor of MSHA/FHWA and against EDF on all counts,

Judge Alexander Williams ruled: "there is no legal or equitable basis to prevent the Intercounty Connector from moving forward."

Construction began.

EDF took the case to the US Court of Appeals January this year and the case has been there until the settlement today.

As of end-Sept, MSHA says $1500m of contracts have been let and nearly $600m was spent. Land is cleared along much of the route, earth is being moved, culverts many of them huge concrete arch jobs are being built, and a lot of bridgework is well under way.

The highway’s western portion from I-270 to MD97 (Georgia Avenue) is due to open in the fall of 2010, with the remaining segments late 2011, or early 2012.

The 18.8 mile (30.3km) 6-lane expressway goes from the I-370 spur off I-270 in Shady Grove/Gaitherburg easterly to I-95 and US1 in Laurel.

MSHA project but MdTA will operate it

The ICC is a project of the Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA) although on completion it is due to be operated by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA), the state toll agency. Financing is split between toll revenue bonds issued by MdTA and state and federal tax monies obtained by MSHA.

It will be an all-electronic highway speed tollroad, tolled using gantries over the roadways carrying transponder readers, cameras and vehicle detection and classification equipment to support a mix of transponder and video tolling.

History

The road was energetically championed by Democrat Governor Parris Glendening during his campaign for election in 1994, but he turned environmentalist and became opposed to it. Former Democrat mayor of Baltimore and state governor, then state controller William Donald Schaeffer played an important role in saving the ICC. He blocked Glendening's efforts to sell of the right of way in around 1999 to 2000.

The road's cause was taken up by the Republican Gov Robert Ehrlich (2003 to 2007) and it is also supported now by the present Democrat Gov Martin O'Malley (2007 on).

Neil Pedersen who worked for Gov Glendenning as head of planning at MSHA and under later governors was elevated to state highway administrator has been an intelligent, courageous and tenacious advocate of the ICC throughout.

Many say that without Pedersen the road would never have got to construction.

Though politicians have waffled, the road has always had overwhelming public support, according to opinion surveys.

Present travel east-west through Upper Montgomery County is a tedious crawl 2-lane roads that are little more than blacktopped rural lanes.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-11-17