After nearly 30 years of wrangling, the Intercounty Connector (MD Route 200) is finally open between I-270 in Gaithersburg and I-95 in Laurel. Back in February, I wrote a piece going into the history of the road, and other pieces of construction going on in the Mid Atlantic region. The Intercounty Connector is a toll road that is part of the long-proposed Washington outer beltway, of which the Fairfax County Parkway in Virginia is the only other constructed part. There are no other parts of this outer beltway either under construction or proposed. I was at the former command center today setting up for Christmas, but took an hour out of our activities to drive both directions of the new road with my Dad.
To start, here's a quick 60 second clip of the entire ICC by air. It gives a good view of some of the elements of the construction of this road.
From the clip, you can see that the road has almost a parkway type feel to it, and you can get that sense when you drive it. It is very wooded, very secluded, and you can tell that the developers wanted the road to blend into the environment as much as possible. The bridges are very very long (relative to the size of the streams over which they traverse). This was by design to make sure that the road makes as little environmental impact as possible. This necessarily jacked up the price of the road, but it made the environmentalists happy. The pathway running alongside the road adds a nice touch, and it was a nice day out so there were plenty of people (and pets) taking advantage of it. I'm sure the developers are very pleased to know that. The road drove very nicely, but it's always nicer to drive on fresh asphalt. We'll see how long that lasts once it goes through several seasonal changes.
From a transportation perspective, the jury is still out regarding whether or not the road will serve to alleviate traffic as was its original intention when it was proposed back in the 80s. During the road's initial opening back in February (from I-270 to Route 97), the traffic during the toll-free period averaged about 30,000 vehicles per day. After the tolls went into effect, the traffic dipped to 11,000 vehicles per day. Now, this could be because people are just shunpiking and don't want to pay the toll. It could also be because the road is EZ-Pass only. In order to pay the toll you need an EZ-Pass transponder. It could also be because since the road was only half-finished, potential users of the road chose not to use it until it was completed end to end. Now, the road is still not completed end to end (it will eventually end at Route 1 just south of Laurel), but the major portion between the two interstate highways is finished. The toll-free period ends next Monday. After the tolls are lifted, we'll see how effective the road will be. The Maryland Transportation Authority (responsible for all toll roads in the state) has already started a major advertising campaign trying to get people to use the road. The tolls are somewhat reasonable right now (only $1 and change to go from end to end), but they surely will go up in the same way that the MdTA jacked up tolls at all the major river crossings at the start of the month.
I don't have any need to drive on the ICC at the moment, so I probably will not drive on it a whole lot if at all, especially during off-peak driving when taking I-495 is just as reasonable an option as MD 200. However, with the opening of the ICC from (just about) end to end, it marks an important milestone in transportation for the state of Maryland. We shall see if it really ends up being the big traffic reducer that everyone (myself included) hoped it would be.
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