East-west Intercounty Connector Endorsed

[Luke_Wilbur]

The Maryland Department of Transportation and the

Federal Highway Administration have extended the period for public comment on the Intercounty Connector Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) from February 15 to February 25, 2005.

 

All comments must now be received by 5:00 p.m. on February 25th through the project website or by mail to the Study Group offices located at the State Highway Administration’s Baltimore headquarters.

 

This is the second time the ICC Study Team has expanded the comment period from the 45 days required by law. “By extending the comment period once again to a full 95 days, the ICC Study Team has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to obtaining public input on the DEIS,” said Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan.

 

“This is more than double the amount of time required by law. To date, well over a thousand comments have been received from interested citizens and organizations.

I urge those who still want to participate in this process to take advantage of this extension and use any of the variety of avenues available to provide their input.”

Secretary Flanagan added, “Granting this extension required us to balance our desire to maximize public input on the one hand and the cost of delay on the other hand. Considering the $12.5 million cost of one months delay in the project, further delay beyond February 25th would not be in the public interest.”

[Luke_Wilbur]

Here is an Aerial Map of the Study area

[Guest eitherweb]

According to the Post, Montgomery's members of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission voted 4 to 1 to build the 18-mile road linking Interstate 270 in Montgomery and I-95 in Prince George's County.

[Guest Dan Wallace]

The study attempts to justify an ICC by relying for support upon broad strokes such as "best professional judgement and prior experience." But the statistics do not lie. The new study predicts that an ICC will introduce more cars on the Beltway and local roads, Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road, that it will cause more environmental damage than estimated in the 1997 study, damage that moved the previous governor to abandon it. And, it's cost is now $2.4 billion in capital alone; add in another billion or so to help pay the loan that Ehrlich wants to get it started in his reelection year. Never mind the increased air, water, and noise pollution, or the communities wrecked by an ICC, for just those reasons above, it's a loser.