Maryland’s Intercounty Connector
(Updated July 2012)
Alliance Position:
Complete construction by 2012.
Project Description:
Maryland’s Intercounty Connector (ICC) is a six-lane, 18-mile limited access, east-west highway that connects Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg with Interstate 95 and Route 1 near Laurel. The project cost $2.5 billion, of which close to $400 million was for environmental mitigation and related improvements.
Current Status:
The I-270 to I-95 segment opened to traffic in 2011.
A contract has been awarded for the final segments involving the I-95 collector-distributor road extension from I-95 to Route 1. Contruction is expected to be complete in 2014.
For a more detailed look at the project, click here.
Background:
Initially planned as part of the region’s second Beltway, the ICC has been the focus of various studies and debates since the 1950s. It first appeared on local master plans in the early 1960s.
However, it wasn't until Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich took office in 2003 and joined with Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan and a newly-constituted Montgomery County Council that the neccessary convergence of political will developed to make the ICC a reality.
Governor Ehrlich's predecessor, Parris Glendening had tried to sell the right-of-way. The need for the ICC had been well-documented for half a century. The construction of the ICC is a classic example of the difference that political will makes.
The Alliance championed completion of the ICC as an essential element in an efficient regional transportation network, testifying on multiple occasions and generating hundreds of postcards and emails in support of the ICC's inclusion in the region's fiscally Constrained Long-Range Plan.