Work on the controversial Intercounty Connector must be limited to construction that won’t cause irreparable harm to the environment under a deal reached Friday by the State Highway Administration and groups that have sued to stop the highway.
A stipulation between the highway administration and the Audobon Naturalist Society and others filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt allows some work to begin next week.
That includes clearing four large trees, relocating utilities, the installation of erosion and sediment controls and the removal of one house owned by the administration near Redland Road.
But major disruptions to the local landscape would be forestalled until a federal judge can decide on the environmentalists’ efforts to shut down the entire 18-mile, $2.3 billion ICC project.
Also Friday, a majority of the Montgomery County Council sent a letter to Gov. Martin O’Malley urging him to halt the destruction of any homes or other significant environmental damage by contractors.
The letter was signed by Council members Phil Andrews, Marc Elrich, Duchy Trachtenberg, Valerie Ervin and President Marilyn Praisner.
“Nothing should be done that is significant in terms of its cost or irreversibility,” Andrews said Friday, adding that doing so would “prejudge” the outcome of the lawsuits.
A spokesman for O’Malley called the letter irrelevant.
Federal Judge Alexander Williams Jr. heard arguments from the Audobon Naturalist Society in one suit Oct. 1. A hearing in a similar case filed by the Sierra Club is scheduled for Oct. 29.
The groups argue that the ICC, which would connect Interstate 270 in Montgomery County to Intersate 95 in Prince George’s, would violate air quality standards and add to congestion.
“Taxpayers deserve better than to have the state go forward with something that they might have to pour money in for the state to replace,” Dolores Milmoe, Maryland conservation advocate for the ANS, said Friday.
“Also, we’re not looking for an extended period of time for the state to wait,” Milmoe sid. “This is October, and we’re talking about maybe a month.”
The stipulations allow the highway adminsitration to ahead with the widening of Interstate 370 at the Crabbs Branch and CSX overpass.
State Highway Administration spokeswoman Valerie Edgar said all of the work had to go forward or the state could be forced to pay between $7 million and $10 million for breaching a deal with contractors. A group of contractors combined as Intercounty Constructors of Annapolis, is doing the work for $478.7 million, Edgar said.
“This is actually better economically for the state,” Edgar said.
