ANNAPOLIS – Opponents see it as beating a dead horse, but several leading lawmakers urged House and Senate committees Tuesday to resume a stalled federal environmental impact study for the Inter-county Connector, a project debated for five decades in the General Assembly.
Several leading members of the Senate and House, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., D-Allegany, sponsored joint resolutions in January to resurrect the 1997 study for construction of the road that would connect Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with Interstate 95 in Prince George’s County.
“I care about the environment,” said Sen. Ida G. Ruben, D-Montgomery, chief sponsor of the Senate joint resolution. “I believe we can build the ICC in an environmentally safe manner.”
Gov. Parris N. Glendening halted the federal environmental study in 1997, and withdrew all support from the project in 1999.
The state has spent about $65 million dollars on land purchases and planning for the road, yet the project has not advanced out of the planning stages since it was first conceived in 1950.
Protracted debate continued on the issue, as both sides cited a series of disparate studies, statistics, surveys and reports that claimed vastly different conclusions on the impact the road would have on the area’s traffic congestion and the environment.
Opponents claimed the federal government rejected the ICC twice before, indicating the road would not reduce commuter time significantly enough to justify the estimated $1.5 billion cost. Any benefits reaped, they said, would be offset by increased traffic through and damage to environmentally sensitive areas.
“We could be making better use of our tax dollars,” said Sen. Leonard H. Teitelbaum, D-Montgomery. “The horse is dead. Why do you keep banging on it,” he asked Ruben.
But Ruben and supporters said past federal studies were inconclusive because they were halted before generating meaningful results, and support for the project has never waned outside the governor’s office.
“Sometimes when the horse dies,” she retorted, “you buy a new one.”
The previous study also did not take into consideration new environmentally friendly construction techniques allowing for hiker/biker trails along the roadway and providing landscaping to give the road an aesthetically pleasing look, much like the George Washington Parkway, said Sen. Jennie Forehand, D-Montgomery.
The Washington region has the third-worst traffic congestion in the nation behind Los Angeles and San Francisco-Oakland, Calif., according to the Federal Highway Administration. The ICC would help alleviate such chronic traffic problems, particularly on the Capital Beltway, but it would do more, supporters said.
The ICC would also allow individuals to get home quicker to their families, improve air quality for residents living near the Beltway and enhance safety for citizens who travel and live on residential roads clogged with drivers seeking alternate routes, Ruben and Forehand said.
“When you see 18-wheelers going down a two-lane road, that’s really why we need to have (the ICC),” Forehand said. Such alternate routes are “deathtraps,” Ruben said.
The state’s Transportation Trust Fund would have to provide $5 million to $10 million to resume the study.
“We’re not asking you to build the road right now,” Ruben said. “We’re trying to ensure they can build (the ICC) in an environmentally safe manner (first).”
Forehand, Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo, and a representative of Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney A. Katz invited incredulous lawmakers to visit their towns during rush hour to witness the congestion.
“I’d be more than happy to provide you a firsthand look at the traffic congestion we face there,” Giammo told the committees.
Support for the ICC in the General Assembly means little without support from Glendening, who “has been very clear that (he thinks) it would be an environmental disaster,” said Michelle Byrnie, the governor’s press secretary.
Opposition is strong, too, among many Montgomery County officials. Though County Executive Douglas M. Duncan has been an outspoken backer of the ICC, the County Council voted Tuesday 5 to 3, with one abstention, to oppose the resolutions. “It’s time to stop studying projects that are never going to be built,” Council Vice President Derick Berlage said in a statement. “This council agrees with Gov. Glendening and with our colleagues on the Prince George’s County Council. The ICC would be very destructive to the environment . . . and would do precious little to relieve traffic congestion.”
The Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also oppose the roadway, saying it would damage environmentally sensitive parks and wetlands, and any reduction in commuter time would be offset by increased traffic volume.
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