This Friday and next Wednesday, the Maryland House of Delegates Environmental Matters Committee will hold public hearings on bills that would stop state expenditures on controversial Intercounty Connector until Maryland agencies assess and disclose the highway’s climate and public health impacts.

Amended I-81 Complaint against VDOT

Reports this week indicate that tolls on the Bay Bridge and Baltimore-area bridges and tunnels would have to be significantly increased, and in some cases doubled, to pay for Montgomery County’s Intercounty Connector.

Seven citizens’ organizations – National Trust for Historic Preservation, Scenic Virginia, APVA Preservation Virginia, Virginia Organizing Project, Valley Conservation Council, Rockbridge Area Conservation Council and Sierra Club – Thursday joined a federal lawsuit to block plans to widen I-81 to eight or more lanes throughout most of western Virginia. (Amended Complaint) Meanwhile, the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates passed bills mandating legislative oversight of I-81 and prior approval should tolls be proposed.

“The significant division in the Senate vote on SB768 today demonstrates the serious problems with this bill,” said Lisa Guthrie, Executive Director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. “Had the bill not been filed at the last minute and had there been even a couple more days for all legislators to realize the damaging fiscal impacts, this bill would not have passed.”