How 'green' can a highway be?
The Intercounty Connector (ICC) may in fact be "one of the 'greenest' highways ever built," as Maryland transportation officials have claimed ["ICC work will help waterways, Md. officials say," Metro, Nov. 26]. However, considering that "green highway" is pretty much an oxymoron, there isn't much competition for that title, and the Maryland claim can be considered to be damning
with faint praise.
The best that can be said for the Maryland efforts to mitigate environmental damage from the ICC is that because of them, things are not as bad as they might be. Even where some environmental improvement may occur, the beneficial effect will be only temporary unless consistent maintenance efforts are made, something that history does not make one optimistic about.
Additionally, Maryland's efforts only attempt, and ineffectively at that, to address three of the highway's environmental impacts. The fourth, air pollution, is ignored. Anyone who really believes that the ICC is environmentally beneficial is only showing his environmental illiteracy.
By
Roger Burkhart, Gaithersburg
| December 1, 2010; 5:36 PM ET
Categories:
HotTopic, Montgomery County, development, environment, traffic, transportation, wildlife
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Posted by: amtraq1 | December 2, 2010 7:53 AM | Report abuse
To paraphrase Edwin Black, author of Internal Combustion, there is no limit to the depths to which oil & highway interests will go to keep us on the path to their profits.
Posted by: amtraq1 | December 2, 2010 7:53 AM | Report abuse
mitigating destruction is simply that.
Posted by: malcolmyoung1 | December 2, 2010 10:00 AM | Report abuse
LW is correct. We need more and better bus service.
Posted by: catbird500 | December 2, 2010 12:40 PM | Report abuse
I am glad the ICC is being built, as are thousands of us who are sick of being stuck on 495's clogged traffic and nearly continual back-ups. I will spend less on gas and oil using the ICC. There should be a highway that runs form Dulles airport to Ocean City , MD that does not involve one traffic light. If the planners were smart a light rail would run on the same route, beside the road.
Posted by: 10bestfan | December 2, 2010 2:39 PM | Report abuse
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To paraphrase Edwin Black, author of Internal Combustion, there is no limit to the depths to which oil & highway interests will go to keep us on the path to their profits.