Inter County Connector

It was London weather, fog, drizzle, persistent light rain, a day without the sun, Tuesday Nov 22, but Marylanders in Montgomery Co, the state's most populous county immediately north of the District of Colombia, celebrated.

Design errors have caused cracking in 13 pier caps on three overbridges of Maryland's new Inter County Connector (ICC) tollroad. Maryland State Highway Administration's project director for the ICC Melinda Peters is saying the design team companies Parsons Transportation Group and Jacobs Engineering have accepted responsibility, acknowledging mistakes in their work - specifications for the steel rebar - led to the problem.

The first week of the first segment of the MD/ICC with toll-free operations saw 216k trips. The opening day apparently saw some one-time curiosity drivers because it got 36k. Since then there has been an average 30k vehicles/day [(216-36)/6]. Tolls begin after midnight this Sunday or 12:01am Monday Mar 7.

Short of major winter storms disrupting finishing touches Maryland's state highway authorities will open the first segment of the Inter County Connector 6am Feb 22. Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) reported the planned opening as an announcement today by the Governor Martin O'Malley. This is the first all-electronic tollroad in the US northeast.

Maryland's proposed high toll rates for the new Inter County Connector are in line with those suggested by Wilbur Smith Associates to maximize revenues. Yesterday Maryland Transportation (Toll) Authority (MdTA) announced high toll rates in the range 25 to 35c/mile in the peak hours and 20c to 30c/mile offpeak for cars with a minimum 3-mile toll, and a $3/toll video surcharge.

Maryland authorities are proposing toll rates for cars of 25c to 35c/mile peak hours (6 to 9am, 4 to 7pm workdays) and 20c to 30c/mile offpeak - metric: 16c to 22c/km peak and 12c to 19c/km off-peak.

The Inter County Connector in Montgomery County Maryland is about a third built and contracts for most of the rest of construction of the 19 miles of 6 lane tollroad are let. But diehard environmentalist opponents of this major addition to the highway network north of Washington DC still pretend to soldier on. The Sierra Club's Metro DC page still features the same old complaints, for example that the new tollroad will "promote sprawl development."

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.

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."

Maryland State Highway Administrator (MdSHA) has given contractors the OK to start construction work on the first part of the 30km (18.8mi) long $2.4b InterCounty Connector (ICC) tollroad. The ICC is an east-west connector mainly located in Montgomery County about 10km (6 miles) north of the Beltway (I-495) and about 23km (14 miles) north of the White House.