Construction on Maryland’s $2.6-billion, 18.8-mile InterCounty Connector has meant extensive interaction with communities of people, turtles, deer and one single brown trout. While design-build teams squeeze a new six-lane toll highway into a right-of-way teeming with humans and wildlife, Maryland’s State Highway Administration (SHA) has allocated 15% of the budget to environmental concerns.
Officials say the massive efforts to manage turtles, trout and tempers are in- dicative of how highway builders must act in a new age. “What we’re seeing with the ICC will become more of the rule rather than the exception,” says SHA project manager Melinda Peters.