Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Weather permitting, officials will change posted limits on Friday and Saturday.
State transportation officials are set to change signs on the Intercounty Connector (MD-200) this weekend to officially increase the speed limit from 55 mph to 60 mph. Weather permitting, westbound signs will be changed on Friday and eastbound signs on Saturday, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. Officials said new warning signs for curves have also been added to the highway, which runs between I-270 and I-95 through Montgomery and Prince George's counties. The MDTA elected to raise the speed limit this past winter following engineering studies and crash analysis based the ICC’s first year of operations. “We needed one year of ICC operations and full consideration of the design speed and geometry of the roadway to ensure …
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A recap of recent regional news in the new year.
Gaithersburg Closer to Lifting Fortunetelling Ban Gaithersburg Planning Commission is expected to meet today to vote recommend that the city allow fortunetellers to set up in certain parts of Gaithersburg, The Gazette reports. Gaithersburg Patch offers some background in a story published back in June 2012. The Gazette’s story is available online. ‘A deer, a baby, a bank robber and a head-on bus crash — all in a morning’s work at Metro’ The Washington Post reports on a string of strange incidents that occurred on Metro trains and a bus last week—everything from a woman going into labor on the Red Line en route to Grosvernor-Strathmore to a deer struck by a Green Line train in Prince George’s County. The story is available on The …
Friday, December 21, 2012
Highway officials will analyze crash data on the Intercounty Connector before increasing the speed limit, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Those clamoring for an increase in the Intercounter Connector's 55 mph speed limit may have some positive news on the horizon. An engineering study of the ICC has concluded that the speed of the highway can safely be raised to 60 mph, pending an analysis of crash data, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday. The accident review of the toll road is expected to be completed by the end of February, at which point the Maryland Transportation Authority will make a decision on the speed limit, according to the report. The highway — designed for speeds up to 60 mph — has yet to see a fatality and MdTA Police have recorded just 20 single-vehicle accidents, according to the report. Earlier in December, Montgomery County Council Member Phil Andrews …
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Montgomery County Council Member Phil Andrews proposes a cut in ICC tolls to get more drivers to use the road, NBC Washington reports.
Montgomery County Council Member Phil Andrews says a deep cut in tolls would increase traffic on the Intercounty Connector and he's calling on the state to do it, NBC Washington reported. Andrews says the $8 round-trip rush-hour toll is among the highest in the nation. He would propose "at least a trial period of several months, if not, a year when the tolls would be...cut in half, in hopes of doubling the traffic," according to the report. A decision on the toll rate is up to the Maryland Transportation Authority. A spokeswoman for the MTA told The Washington Post the ICC is meeting both traffic and revenue projections. The road was designed to carry traffic volumes projected for 2030, according to the report. Andrews said he hopes that …
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
One contractor disputes that the company is at fault.
Engineers for Maryland's most high-tech highway are nearly half way to mending hairline fractures found in 10 of the bridges that carry the Intercounty Connector between Gaithersburg and Laurel. Repair work has wrapped up on four of those bridges and is set to start this week on three more. But who’s to blame for cracks at two other bridges remains at question. The contractor who designed those bridges is disputing the state’s assessment that the cracks are the contractor's fault. The ICC’s western third opened in February 2011 amid a flurry of both fanfare and skepticism. Eight months later, inspectors found cracks in three bridges along that 7.2-mile stretch—known as “Contract A”—in the ICC’s “pier caps,” the concrete structures …
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The extension will stretch the ICC from I-270/I-370 in Montgomery County to I-95 in Prince George's County.
The fresh blacktop of the $2.45 billion Intercounty Connector will open today at 6 a.m. after more than 50 years of debate and four years of construction. The section opening today will allow commuters to drive quickly from I-370 in Montgomery County to I-95 in Prince George's County. Now, all that's left to build of the 18.2 mile highway is a small stretch connecting I-95 to Route 1, which is set to begin construction later this year or early next year. Maryland political leaders celebrated on Monday at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the major extension to Maryland’s newest toll road. Political leaders including Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Deputy U.S. Transportation Secretary John Porcari, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. …
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Intercounty Connector's full 18 miles will open to the public on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
The second segment of the Intercounty Connector, an 18-mile road that connects I-370 in Gaithersburg with I-95 in Laurel, is due to open on Nov. 22. The first 5.5 miles, from I-370 to Georgia Avenue, opened in February. As with the first segment, no tolls will be collected for the first couple of weeks. Free ride on the second segment of the ICC will end Dec. 4, however regular toll fares will be collected on the first segment. The eastern portion of the road will open connections to the ICC at Layhill Road (MD 182), New Hampshire Avenue (MD 650), Columbia Pike (US 29), Briggs Chaney Road and I-95 in Laurel. Currently, 15,000 drivers use the ICC each day. At the end of the fiscal year (June 2012) it is hoped that the daily use will …
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Twelve highway employees have been killed while repairing Maryland roads in the last 10 years. National Work Zone Awareness Week kicked off today with stories of preventable worker injuries.
Laurie Moser’s husband, Rick, worked with the State Highway Administration (SHA) in Maryland for 21 years, repairing roads and making highways safe for motorists, even while putting himself in precarious proximity to passing cars. Moser knew Rick’s profession was dangerous but she never expected to hear that a speeding driver had killed her husband on a summer day, June 26, 2007. “[I worried] mostly in the winter,” she said Monday. “Never in my life did I dream it would be a clear summer day that I would receive this news.” While her husband worked to clear debris from a state road, a Chevrolet 3500 truck crossed the shoulder of the lane and barreled into Rick at a speed of 60 mph, five miles above the posted limit. Rick was projected 170…
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Montgomery and Prince George's county officials joined U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Monday morning to cut ribbon on first phase of Intercounty Connector.
Politicians and other government officials celebrated the completion of the first section of the Intercounty Connector at a ceremony along the new toll highway Monday morning. The road is scheduled to open to traffic Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 6 a.m.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Representatives from Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, along with state legislators, joined Gov. O’Malley in opening the first stretch of the 18-mile road.
Maryland leaders past and present gathered in the rain on Monday to cut a ceremonial green ribbon, opening the first segment of the Intercounty Connector, which will eventually connect Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Officials say the new toll road is just the beginning of a push toward major improvement in transportation in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. Detractors call the road that will link Interstate 370 and Interstate 95 unnecessary and a drain on the environment but lawmakers stressed that it is a necessary part of other badly needed big-ticket transit projects in the area. “It’s bigger than a road, it really is,” Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D) told the crowd of about 200 gathered at the ICC/MD200 intersection in Gaithersburg …
Eric S.
10:00 am on Thursday, March 28, 2013
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