Slight detour possible for Intercounty Connector

SILVER SPRING, Md. (Map, News) - The boundaries for the Intercounty Connector could be redrawn in the Paint Branch area of Silver Spring so that the county can use an existing pond for storm water runoff instead of tearing down trees to create a new runoff area, officials told The Examiner.

As the process to build the connector proceeds, it’s the type of design tweak that could become commonplace. The road, once completed, is set to be an 18-mile controlled-access toll highway that will link activity centers on Interstate 270 and the Interstate 95/U.S. 1 corridors.

Each of the five stages of the $2 billion-plus project, on the books for decades, is scheduled to be designed as it is constructed.

Montgomery County Planner Dan Hardy, who is in charge of the county’s ICC plans, said the change is something members of the public will get to weigh in on at a Montgomery County Planing Board meeting this fall.

What’s envisioned is shifting the roadway a few hundred feet west, an alteration that Hardy said is “hardly noticeable” in the grand scheme yet changes the lay of the land for the nearby residences.

“We’re basically moving the area of impact over to the left,” he said. “But that permanently saves about three acres of trees that we won’t have to cut down.”

Originally, the State Highway Administration proposed creating a separate space right next to the existing three-acre pond at Paint Branch for erosion control due to construction. County planners took months to do analysis work that proved the single pond could handle runoff and erosion control, Hardy said.

The location at issue is part of the project’s second phase, which will take the road from Maryland 97 (Georgia Avenue) to west of U.S. 29 (Columbia Pike). Hardy said the state has bought all 30 acres of parkland in Montgomery necessary for the first phase of construction.

In the second stage of the project about twice as much park property will be needed. Altogether the state has paid Montgomery County about $7 million for these park parcels.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com

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