InterCounty Connector

ICC Contract B was the third and final contract connecting two major Washington, DC metropolitan areas. Kiewit was awarded this $550 million, 7-mile highway project not because the team offered the lowest bid, but because of their approach to the environmental components. ICC Contract B includes the challenges of balancing an aggressive job schedule with exceeding the tough erosion and sediment control standards of Maryland throughout several stream valleys and a 2-mile-long environmental special protection area.

Some of the environmental challenges include redundant erosion, sediment controls and environmental design, as well as construction and inspection teams, and specialized construction methods in constricted work areas to minimize any environmental footprints.

Along with 10 bridge structures, nearly 2 million cubic yards of grading work was completed. Throughout this heavily phased process, erosion and sediment controls were installed, maintained and often redundant to one another. In the special protection areas, it was a common requirement to have a super silt fence side-by-side, oversized ponds and parallel berms. To maintain the 7 miles of controls, 600 hours per week were spent stabilizing material, patching fences, cleaning outlet structures and gabion baskets and rebuilding earth berms.