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Environmental restrictions and thick mud aside, the Fairland and Burtonsville stretch of the Intercounty Connector remains on schedule for 2011, an ICC engineer said.

"From the summer until now, things have moved a lot further," said Bob Farley, resident engineer for Contract C, the Burtonsville part of the ICC. "We're about 24 percent complete."

Most of the trees near Route 29 and Briggs Chaney Road have been cleared, and part of the future bridge along Briggs Chaney Road has been built.

While most of the tree clearing in that area has been completed, the area west of Briggs Chaney Road and Little Paint Branch needs significant clearing, as well as the area west of Old Columbia Pike, Farley said.

Once environmental permits are approved, construction will take place in those areas, Farley said. The approvals could come in a few months, he said.

A 72-inch pipe is being installed under Route 29 to collect water, but the lack of permits are preventing workers from operating near some bodies of water, he said.

"We've got stream restrictions [so workers] can't get in the water to do any pump-arounds or any kind of work from March 1 to the end of July," Farley said. "It's a pretty significant window that restricts them from doing certain things [near or in] those bodies of water."

Once permits are received, Farley said they can fill low-lying areas, creating a more even surface near Route 29. The filling also will be needed to support structures, including a new bridge along Briggs Chaney Road, he said.

Bridge under construction

On a sunny Friday afternoon off Route 29 near Briggs Chaney Road, a crane carrying soil circled around a bridge base planted deep into a massive crater. The bridge would be an overpass for Briggs Chaney Road, while the ICC road would be under.

Rain from earlier in the week created thick mud. With most of the trees in the area now stumps, visibility was clear.

Motorists passing Route 29 and Briggs Chaney Road can expect to see more structures for the bridge, including piers, built in the coming months. And more dirt work will take place this spring, Farley said.

He said lane closures can be expected from "time to time" but said it should not be anything "really excessive."

Fran Counihan, a spokeswoman for the ICC, said there are no plans to do any night work in the Route 29-Briggs Chaney site "at least in the near future."

"That would be something we would try to avoid at all costs." Counihan said. "We don't want to do anything more to the residents than we have to."

Farley said other Contract C construction areas have shown progress. The substructures for the bridge along Old Columbia Pike have been completed, he said.

"We're just waiting for the structural steel to get here," said Farley, who said the bridge should be completed this spring.

Contract C costs $513.9 million to construct and design, making it the second most expensive part of the ICC, a six-lane, 18-mile toll-road, highway that would connect Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg with Interstate 95 at Laurel. Contract B, the project linking Routes 97 and 29, is the most expensive stretching at $559.7 million. The total cost of the toll highway, divided into five contracts spanning Montgomery and Prince George's counties, is $2.4 billion.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved a $500,000-plus loan for the ICC. The Maryland Transportation Authority will secure the loan and pay it back using state toll revenue, according to a Dec. 23 DOT news release.

ICC dispute not settled

for Eyes of Paint Branch

As funds pour into the ICC project, a local environmental group wants the State Highway Administration to follow county regulations for the Upper Paint Branch Watershed.

The Eyes of Paint Branch, an environmental advocacy group, is calling for Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to enforce regulations stemming from the watershed's status as a county Special Protection Area. But the SHA does not have to follow county guidelines, which include an impervious surface limit near the watershed.

In a Dec. 24 letter to Leggett, Eyes of Paint Branch Vice President David Dunmire said the county's SPA surface rule is critical in reducing the environmental effects of the ICC.

"SHA claims the ICC is ‘complying in principle' and cites a long list of mitigation projects, but does not address the specific measures required by the SPA regulations," Dunmire said in the letter. "This smacks of ‘the fox guarding the hen house.'"

Steve Shofar, watershed division chief for the county Department of Environmental Protection, said the state and county are negotiating SPA compliance but no timetable has been set. He said that while the state has been responsive, he wants SPA regulations followed.

"We are working out the details," Shofar said.

The SHA has spent more than $370 million – or more than 15 percent of the ICC's total costs – on mitigation and stewardship, Counihan said.

The state recently settled a lawsuit from the Environmental Defense Fund after the EDF dropped its appeal of a November 2007 U.S. District Court ruling. As part of the agreement, the state agreed to sponsor an air-quality study and retrofit Montgomery County school buses with emission-reducing exhaust systems, according to an ICC newsletter.

In 1998, the state acquired land for the Burtonsville portion of the ICC from Bethesda-based Winchester Homes. The next year, the property was bought by the state for $10.6 million, Counihan told The Gazette in July.

But the road was realigned two miles south, and the state gave the old ICC property to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Valerie Berton, a spokeswoman for M-NCPPC, said in an e-mail that the property is owned by SHA but will become the commission's as part of the ICC Record of Decision. Winchester Homes has filed suit regarding the property status, she said.

Dunmire's letter also called for Leggett to reconvene the Upper Paint Branch Technical Work Group, a panel of experts that set an impervious surface limit for the area. The watershed is bordered by Route 29 to the west and New Hampshire Avenue to the east.

The Paint Branch is one of three county watersheds that go into the Anacostia River, a tributary of the Potomac River. The Upper Paint Branch is surrounded by mixed-use areas, including residential communities and agricultural zones. The Lower Paint Branch flows through Good Hope and Gum Springs and is inhabited by trout, rosyside dace and fallfish, according to the county Department of Environmental Protection.