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The Maryland Transportation Authority Board voted today to charge most cars and trucks up to 35 cents per mile at peak hours on the planned Intercounty Connector highway when it opens in late 2010.

The board voted unanimously to set the rate for rush-hour commuters between 25 cents and 35 cents, the same amount the group proposed before a series of public hearings in the fall. Drivers traveling the 18.8-mile highway outside of peak hours — 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. weekdays — could pay between 20 and 30 cents per mile.

Vehicles with more than two axles will be charged a higher rate. Transportation officials said they still have not decided whether to give a discount to commuter buses that may use the ICC.

A commuter traveling the full length of the road one way could pay $6.60 per trip during rush hour, about $3,300 per year in tolls. State officials estimate more than half the drivers will travel about six miles of the highway, lowering the average cost for drivers to $2.10 a trip, or about $1,050 for a working year.

"I think many people understand [the toll]," said Ronald Freeland, executive secretary for the transportation authority. "When you do that math, it isn't that high."

The board will decide the exact rates before the road opens in late 2010, Freeland said.

The rates have drawn a fresh round of criticism for the six-lane highway, which will extend from Gaithersburg to Laurel. The ICC has been tied up by environmentalists, residents and other issues for decades. Construction began last year, and the first stretch of road is scheduled to open in October or November.

The road is designed to provide a direct link between Gaithersburg and Interstate 95, easing traffic along the Capital Beltway and along east-west highways in Montgomery and Howard counties.

Opponents say the highway will create "Lexus lanes" that cater to wealthier drivers in western counties.

"My constituents won't be able to afford it," said Del. Barbara A. Frush (D-Dist. 21) of Beltsville. "And they're the ones where it's running through their backyard."

At public hearings, elected officials asked the authority to give discounts to frequent commuters and residents who live near the highway. Transportation Secretary Beverly K. Swaim-Staley said at the meeting those discounts would not be legal because it does not treat all drivers equally.

While the board made a new rate for overnight travel and lowered the cost to 40 cents per mile for people traveling less than two miles on the new $2.5 billion road project, it deviated little from the original proposal that drew a majority of protests against the higher rates.

In a breakdown of public comments given at hearings or sent to the board, Maryland transportation officials noted that more than 284 people had said the toll rates were set too high, about 74 percent of the people they say commented.

Critics included longtime opponents such as Greg Smith of the nonprofit group Community Research Inc., who said the authority's rates are far higher than what was proposed when the road was brought to the legislature in 2004.

"This was a charade, just like the whole public process with this," Smith said after the meeting Thursday in Greenbelt. "It's a total bait-and-switch."

In one change from the original proposal made in September, drivers who wait to travel overnight between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. could pay between 10 and 20 cents per mile, saving up to 15 cents a mile on the electronic toll.

The ICC will be the first all-electronic toll road to operate in Maryland. Drivers must have an EZ-Pass transponder to travel on the highway, or cameras will record a license plate number and drivers will be charged $3 in addition to the regular toll.

The highway will have the eighth-highest toll rate in the nation, according to figures from the transportation department.

The rates are designed to keep enough cars off the highway to avoid congestion while still raising the roughly $101 million per year needed to pay for the cost of construction and to keep the road operational, Freeland said. About $75 million will pay off the bonds used to build the highway, and $26 million will keep the road operational, Freeland said, though he said it would take a few years of use to reach that funding level.

E-mail Daniel valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.