The Maryland Transportation Authority has come in on the low end of its proposed range of tolls on the Intercounty Connector as it prepares to open the highway's first segment around the beginning of 2011.
The authority announced Friday that it will charge 25 cents per mile at peak periods for a typical passenger vehicle to travel between the Interstate 270 corridor and Georgia Avenue. That's about $1.45 for the 5.6-mile stretch.
The authority board had adopted a policy allowing peak rates to be set in a range of 25 to 35 cents, and the high end would have meant a toll of about $6 for a trip between the I-270 corridor and Interstate 95 when the second segment of the highway is opened in late 2011 or early 2012. Those estimates sparked protests from many residents of Montgomery and Prince George's counties, who are expected to be the heaviest users of the ICC.
If toll rates do not rise when the second ICC segment opens, a peak-time trip between I-270 and I-95 would cost about $4 — still too high to satisfy some critics. Peak times are 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.
Executive Secretary Ronald Freeland said the authority took comments from area residents into account when setting toll rates.
He noted that the ICC is opening at less than half of its eventual length and won't be as useful as when it connects I-270 and I-95. "We're obviously starting at the lowest possible rates, hoping to build traffic volume."
He acknowledged that if traffic volume builds quickly, the authority could try to ease congestion by raising the peak rate to 35 cents a mile on 10 days' notice without a board vote. To go even higher would require a board vote, public hearings and 60 days' notice.
"The tolls will probably be adjusted," Freeland said.
Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews, a longtime opponent of the ICC, said the 25-cent rate is still too high. "The range itself was much too high to begin with."
Andrews said that even at the proposed rate, drivers commuting the full length of the ICC both ways will pay close to $9 a day when it's complete. "Since the ICC is neither a bridge nor a tunnel, people can avoid it, and they will."
The ICC was built with the premise that tolls would rise to ensure the free flow of traffic. The highway is expected to reach U.S. 1, but the final segment has been delayed until spring 2013 because of cost.
Off-peak tolls also were set at the low end of the possible range — at 20 cents a mile. Overnight tolls — from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. — will be 10 cents a mile. That would put tolls for the I-270-Georgia Avenue stretch at $1.15 off peak and 60 cents overnight.
Freeland said the first segment is expected to cut the current trip from Rockville Pike to Georgia Avenue (Route 97) from 25-30 minutes on Routes 115 and 28 to seven minutes on the ICC.
The early costs of building the ICC have been largely financed by toll increases at other facilities — including the John F. Kennedy Highway and the Baltimore Harbor crossings.
Freeland acknowledged that the authority will review tolls next year, and legislative analysts have predicted a hefty increase will be needed. But he said the low-end initial toll rates on the ICC are not expected to result in higher increases at other facilities.
If traffic meets the authority's "conservative" forecasts, he said, ICC tolls will cover all of its maintenance and operating costs, and about half of the debt service on the bonds issued to build the road. With more traffic, ICC tolls alone could pay off those bonds.