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A new highway ramp being built as part of the Intercounty Connector (ICC) project is slated to open later this month and will drastically alter the way drivers access Interstate 370 from Shady Grove Road in Derwood.

Odessa Phillip, ICC community outreach director, told residents at a Greater Shady Grove Civic Alliance meeting last week that major changes are in store for area motorists whose daily commute includes driving along Shady Grove Road near Briardale Road.

The new plans drew complaints from some residents and confused looks from others.

Drivers used to traveling westbound on Shady Grove Road and then veering right onto westbound I-370 will no longer be able to do so when the new ramp is in place. Instead, they will have to turn at a traffic signal already in place, where double left-turn lanes will take them onto a new ramp that will loop under Shady Grove Road and head toward the highway.

Three lanes will continue west on Shady Grove Road.

Meanwhile, motorists using the new left-turn lanes at the traffic light from eastbound Shady Grove Road onto westbound I-370 will instead turn right to get on the new ramp.

Phillip said the change is needed because the existing westbound I-370 ramp is going to be modified to give drivers access to the ICC, an 18-mile toll road that will eventually connect to Interstate 95 in Laurel. The switch is slated to occur Nov. 21, weather permitting, she said.

Bob Quinn, a Derwood resident, said he is concerned that the new alignment will make getting onto I-370 more difficult.

"It seems like you made it easier to get onto the ICC and harder to make the left [onto I-370]," he said. "I think it's kind of backwards."

Other residents chimed in that the new left turn could cause traffic to back up on Shady Grove Road. There is no traffic light for the existing westbound ramp.

Keith Riniker, a traffic designer for Intercounty Constructors, the contractor for the project, said accessing the roadway will be a "little messy" the first few days after the shift occurs, but that traffic projections for the next 10 years show that left-turn traffic will decrease with the addition of the ICC.

He added that engineers will monitor the road and adjust the timing of the signals, if needed.

Alexandra Witze, a Derwood resident, said she is not confident traffic will get any better.

"I think the community doesn't have a sense about what the traffic's going to be like and what it'll be like a few years down the line," she said.

Also changing is the way people get onto Shady Grove Road from the Shady Grove Metro station access road. The ramp that now takes drivers off the access road and onto westbound Shady Grove Road will be moved farther south by approximately 100 to 150 feet. That change, which is scheduled to occur Nov. 14, is designed so that both the Metro station ramp and the new westbound I-370 ramp can be controlled by a single traffic light, Phillip said.

The second half of the ramp that takes people off of the Metro access road and onto eastbound Shady Grove Road will also be modified and moved farther south to give motorists more time to merge onto the road. That part of the project is scheduled to open at the same time as the opening of the new I-370 ramp.

Phillip said Monday that she understands residents' concerns, because it will be the first time during the entire ICC project that people will have to make a conscious change when they drive.

"But it's just different and people will eventually get used to it," she said.

elsewhere along ICC

A new bridge that will carry traffic north and south along Georgia Avenue and over the Intercounty Connector in Olney is slated to open the weekend of Nov. 14, ICC spokeswoman Fran Counihan said. The ICC, an east-west roadway connecting Interstate 370 in Gaithersburg to Interstate 95 in Laurel, will travel under Georgia Avenue.