Here’s the full press release:

Governor Martin O’Malley . . .  announced [Monday] that the State will open the first seven-mile segment of Maryland’s Intercounty Connector (ICC)/MD 200 on Tuesday, February 22, 2011, at 6 a.m., weather permitting. The initial section of the State’s first all-electronic toll road connects I-370 at Shady Grove and MD 97 (Georgia Avenue) in Rockville/Olney. In addition, motorists may ‘test drive’ the ICC at no charge between its opening on Feb. 22 through March 6. The test-drive period will give customers an opportunity to become familiar with the highway’s all-electronic tolling and variable pricing, while allowing the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), which will own and operate the ICC as its eighth toll facility, to test the tolling equipment under actual traffic conditions.

Drivers can gain immediate benefits and time savings by using the first ICC segment. In fact, it is projected that trip times can be reduced by up to 70% when using the ICC between Shady Grove and Georgia Avenue compared to traveling congested local roads. The ICC is a variably priced toll facility in order to manage congestion and deliver reliable travel times. Higher tolls are charged during peak-travel times and reduced tolls are charged when traffic volumes are lower.

ICC tolls will be collected electronically at highway speeds using E-ZPass® technology. There will be no toll booths or cash toll collection on the ICC. Traveling the ICC without a valid E-ZPass account will result in a Notice of Toll Due being sent to the registered owner of the vehicle for the cost of the toll. Effective April 6, the notice will include a $3 service charge per trip, as is the policy at Maryland’s other toll facilities.

To sign up for E-ZPass, visit www.ezpassmd.com to enroll online or get a list of E-ZPass “On the Go” retail locations. E-ZPass Stop-in Centers are located at local Motor Vehicle Administration offices in Gaithersburg and Beltsville and at most Maryland toll facilities.

Beginning Monday, March 7, drivers of passenger vehicles and light trucks will pay the following to travel the ICC’s first 5.5-mile tolled segment:

• $1.45 during Peak hours (Mon. – Fri., 6 – 9 a.m. and 4 – 7 p.m.)
• $1.15 during Off-peak times (Mon. – Fri., 5 – 6 a.m., 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and 7 – 11 p.m.; and Sat. & Sun. 5 a.m. – 11 p.m.) and
• $0.60 Overnight (11 p.m. – 5 a.m. Daily)

These toll rates are at the low end of the tolling ranges approved by the MDTA Board in December 2009.

The next segment of the ICC, under construction by the State Highway Administration (SHA) between Georgia Avenue and I-95 in Laurel, is scheduled to be completed in late 2011/early 2012.

Dateline for the ICC Opening

• Tuesday, Feb. 22, 6:00 a.m.: ICC opens to traffic, weather permitting
• Tuesday, Feb. 22 – Sunday, March 6 at 12 midnight: Test-drive period; no tolls or service charges collected
• Monday, March 7, 12:01 a.m.: Toll collection begins
• Monday, March 7, 12:01 a.m. – Tuesday, April 5, 12 midnight: Waiver of $3 Notice of Toll Due service charge
• Tuesday, April 6, 12:01 a.m.: Full tolling operations, including collection of service charges

The basic peak hours toll will be $1.45. Overnight will be $.60, while off-peak will be $1.15.

The tolls will be collected using overhead EZ-PASS sensors. Cars that do not have an EZ-PASS will be billed in the mail — plus a $3 handling fee. So get that EZ-PASS!

Here’s the complete breakdown:

However, Mike asks a good question that is not getting a great deal of play. He lives near the ICC, and he asks what effect it’s likely to have on property values:

Suddenly, it should get much easier for anyone living near us to work in places like Columbia and Baltimore or fly out of BWI, to give just a few examples of what the new road could offer, and I anticipate the ICC will have a positive affect on property value for those with easy access to it. My hunch is that we might see an up-tick in the next few months, as the opening of the first stretch nears and buzz around it builds, with more to come as we approach the opening of the remaining stretches that will connect 270 and 95 in late 2011.

Could be. On the other hand, potentially increased local traffic (on/off of the ICC) could reduce property values. What do you think, and why? Let us know in the comments!

Perhaps you’ve heard the cautionary tale of Easter Island. Easter Island is the windswept, grassy island over 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile with the enormous stone heads. For years it was a mystery how they could have been carved, transported and erected on an island that had no trees for rollers or cranes and no decent plant material for strong ropes. People even hypothesized that aliens had built them, since it seemed impossible for the small, Stone Age human population there to have built so many fabulous monuments.

Modern investigations have solved the mystery. Easter Island was once as heavily wooded as Hawaii, as shown by pollen spores found in core samples of the island’s crater lake. The trees could provide rollers, skid roads and cranes, and other trees provided fine fiber for strong ropes. A count of the many ancient foundations of homes long since rotted away show that the island once supported thousands of people rather than the straggly few hundred that were there when they were “discovered” on Easter Sunday, 1722.

How did the island wind up with lots of heads and no trees?

They had cut down all the trees to make big heads. The trees that once allowed them to make big heads also provided shelter and fuel. Without them, they had to move into caves for shelter. The trees had provided seagoing canoes that allowed fishing to bring in protein from the sea. Trees had provided edible seeds as well that were lost to them when they cut the last nut tree. Trees also captured rainfall and charged the aquifers that provided fresh water. Without trees, the people went hungry. Easter Island went through a period of warfare, cannibalism and starvation as the once large population collapsed.

Not too bright, these Easter Islanders, eh? Well, they were every bit as bright as we are. We too are building big stone heads while undermining the resources that support us.

Our big stone heads are highways. We are burning the one time inheritance of fossil fuels in one big fiesta, supporting an ever larger population using oil to plow, plant, fertilize, harvest and process our food. We are building roads, parking lots, houses and shopping malls on some of the nation’s richest farm land. Like the Easter Islanders, a day will come when we realize that big stone heads can’t feed us.

Oil is finite and runs out as we use it. Oil experts believe we are now at or near the peak of global oil production. It will soon enter its inevitable decline. We will need to reduce our demand greatly. We should use the last of our oil to build a sustainable energy infrastructure, not to support one more round of sprawl. (Come to one of my energy talks to hear more about how we can get from where we are to where we need to be.)

The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. We are spending our limited transportation dollars on highways rather than more efficient transit, our own way of building big heads – infrastructure that will soon be worse than worthless. At least the big heads are interesting to look at. Highways are uglier than what they replace. Destroying forests, farms and wetlands with borrowed billions makes no sense.

Here is our biggest proposed stone head – The Intercounty Connector:

The ICC was estimated to cost $2.4 billion dollars in 2004. Since then the cost of oil, steel, concrete and asphalt have all increased markedly, yet the official estimate remains $2.4 billion. We are being lied to about its cost.

Underestimated at $2.4 billion, it costs too much. While this road literally bulldozes forward, the Purple Line limps forward with barely enough funds for planning, and the Corridor Cities Transitway is nothing but a dream. The ICC stole its lunch money.

Even if we magically found an answer to our energy problems tomorrow, the ICC wouldn’t make sense. It is projected to trigger another 5 to 20 thousand acres of additional sprawl and to increase traffic on segments of the Beltway, I-95 and I-270. It would undercut existing businesses in Silver Spring and Wheaton by funneling customers to the new regional Konterra Mall to be built where the ICC would meet I-95.

But we have no magic energy answer. Our cars run on gasoline and cause global warming, smog and acid rain. We can’t reduce our global warming impact by spending billions to move in the wrong direction.

The ICC was planned for a world with no energy problems. The ICC study assumed that oil would cost the same in 2025 as it cost in 2004. That has already proven wrong. Oil cost $40 a barrel in 2004 and $100 a barrel today. The ICC was intended to support ever growing traffic. But in response to rising oil prices, vehicle miles traveled have been in decline for two years.

The ICC can still be stopped. The General Assembly will soon vote on three bills regarding the ICC. HB 1471, with 40 co-sponsors, would repeal the ICC’s funding package, freeing $2 billion dollars for other projects. HB 1416 would block further expenditures until the highway’s impact on global warming is assessed. This was never done in the Environmental Impact Statement process. And a third bill would require the state to assess the public health impacts of the ICC on air pollution before spending more money.

Our District 17 Delegates and Senator aren’t cosponsors of these bills. In fact they are all ICC supporters. It’s time for them to wake up and smell the coffee. If they understood peak oil, they wouldn’t support this road. All our District 17 representatives have cosponsored the Global Warming Solutions Act. If they truly care about global warming, they would vote against the ICC.

Please let them know where you stand. style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);" href="http://www.rockvillecentral.com/2007/11/rockvilles-legislators.html">Here is their contact information.

The biggest supporter of the ICC today is Governor O’Malley, who claims to care deeply about the environment and global warming. Ask him to connect the dots and drop the ICC. You can e-mail him through the form here.

The stakes really couldn’t be much higher. Please contact your Maryland representatives and urge them to vote for the bills to stop the ICC. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Carl Henn
Hungerford

Rockville Central runs occasional, edited opinion pieces by contributors as well as other guest columns. Their views are not necessarily those of Rockville Central. We encourage you to join the growing list of contributors! To submit your piece for consideration, contact us.

(Images from Bugbob and Freestate Politics.)

A federal judge today upheld the Maryland State Highway Administration’s environmental study of an 18.8-mile intercounty connector through Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, clearing the way for the road’s construction after 50 years of controversy. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Williams Jr. against environmental groups that had tried to stop the toll road via two lawsuits means the project has overcome its final legal hurdle.

So now, the Intercounty Constructors can seriously get down to the business of constructing.

People wishing to get from the Rio to Norbeck will be pleased. Those in the way, perhaps less so.

But, as there are still one or two pesky lawsuits pending (scheduled to be decided shortly after an October 29 hearing), work won’t begin in earnest. According to WTOP:

“We are not going to be turning dirt. It will be mostly putting up signs and erecting a field office for the work,” says Valerie Burnette Edgar, spokesperson for the Maryland State Highway Administration.

The first stretch of work will be on the part of the ICC closest to Rockville, running from I-370 (better known as That Interstate That Doesn’t Go Anywhere Else But The Rio) to Georgia Ave.

Hey! It backs onto Redgate Golf Course! Hopefully the project workers will have some pleasant afternoons…