Intercounty Connector Contract A
Unlike any highway project attempted before, and certainly a first for Maryland, the Intercounty connector (ICC) will increase community mobility and safety in Montgomery and Prince George’s County Maryland. While critics may dispute the advantages of a new highway in this area, project engineers have gone above and beyond the norm to address the ICC’s impacts to local communities and the environment. Among the environmental meditation measures taken, engineers designed the highway with minimum cutting of adjacent forests and provided culverts and bridges so that large and small animals may continue to forge streams. When the box turtle was discovered within the project’s limits, biologists used global positioning satilite technology to locate and track the turtles. The turtles were then relocated for their protection and will be reintroduced to their native habitat at the project’s conclusion.
Working with this interdisciplinary team of biologists, environmentalists, and engineers, FTLA brought the landscape architect’s perspective and knowhow. We designed landscape plantings to attract wildlife to the culverts and introduced earthen escape ramps, assisting deer that venture into the roadway corridor so they can find a way out. To aid in protecting juvenile salamanders, a wildlife fence was placed on the right of way fence bordering the nearby forests. In the more traditional role of landscape architect, FTLA provided roadside planting with native plant material and recreated wetlands disturbed during construction. We also participated in community outreach, preparing renderings and addressing public concerns about potential project impacts.