It’s taken longer to build an 18-mile road in Montgomery County than to send astronauts to the moon, but the federal government has just given final approval to what may be the most bitterly contested — and expensive — ribbon of asphalt in the nation. The six-lane, controlled-access InterCounty Connector will link Interstates 270 and 95 in Montgomery County with Route 1 in Prince George’s County at a cost of $2.4 billion — significantly higher than when the project was first proposed way back in the 1950s.
A well-organized and funded effort by environmental zealots to block the ICC succeeded for decades, and when former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening unexpectedly reversed his longstanding position and canceled a critical study in 1999, opponents were ecstatic. The ICC seemed about as dead as a dodo, even as commuters sat fuming in progressively bigger traffic jams caused in part by the absence of an east-west transportation link.
But then Maryland, one of the bluest states in the nation, electeda Republican governor in 2002 for just the seventh time since the GOP was founded — and the first time since Spiro Agnew was elected three decades ago. His promise to build the ICC was not Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s only campaign pledge, but it clearly helped him defeat Glendenning’s heir apparent, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, an ICC opponent.
That was also the year County Executive Doug Duncan and several members of the Montgomery County Council were elected on a “Go Montgomery!” platform to build the ICC. Yet ICC opponents continued to ignore the obvious bipartisan mandate, erecting more roadblocks in a desperate attempt to kill the much-needed road for good.
Ehrlich fulfilled his promise to start construction of the state’s preferred southernmost alternative — which should reduce congestion at 39 local intersections — by appealing directly to President George W. Bush, who expedited the project approval process. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall and should be completed by 2010.
Considering the financial obstacles Ehrlich inherited and the determined opposition, this is indeed a significant accomplishment. Thanks in large part to Ehrlich — and Bush — the ICC is now rising Phoenix-like from the political ashes.
Opponents won’t slink away and hide now, of course, but Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan believes the state will prevail. We want to see dirt actually being moved, but the earth has already moved if a major new road can be built in Montgomery County, of all places. It means there’s hope for other Washington-area rush hour prisoners of environmental zealotry run amuck.
