ICC Project Director, Melinda Peters, named one of the top 25 Newsmakers of 2010

Photo Credit:  ENR.com

With the Intercounty Connector (ICC) crisscrossing Montgomery County and adding to the traffic woes on Norbeck Road, did you ever wonder who in the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) was responsible for planning and designing the new highway?


Ponder no more!  That person is Melinda Peters who serves as SHA's ICC Project Director and is responsible for coordinating the efforts of three design-build teams and ensuring that the project stays on time and on budget.

In January 2011, Ms. Peters was feted as one of the top 25 news-makers in the construction industry according to The Engineering News-Record, a popular publication in the engineering infrastructure field.  Ms. Peters received this distinction for her leadership on the ICC. 

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), Ms. Peters graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, concentrating in Transportation. While in college, Ms. Peters completed an internship with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in the Highway Design, Construction, and Geotechnical departments.  After graduation, Ms. Peters started her employment with the Maryland SHA in the Highway Design Division, and has remained there for eleven years.  During that time, she completed a Masters of Business Administration degree at Mount Saint Mary’s College in 1998, and is licensed as a registered professional engineer in the State of Maryland.

While at SHA, Ms. Peters worked on several projects including the interchange reconfiguration at I-270 and MD-124; the design of the MD-124 Corridor project; and the approximately ten mile US-29 Corridor in Montgomery County, encompassing a total of nine interchanges to the Howard County border.  Ms. Peters' project management experience includes conventional design-bid-build projects as well as design-build.  She has been involved in the on-going planning activities for the ICC project as the Design Liaison and is currently serving as the Project Director for Maryland State Highway Administration on the ICC for design and construction.

Congratulations to Ms. Peters on this award!  Hopefully, Ms. Peters can take advantage of her rising star power and connections in SHA to get a pedestrian-bike path built on Norbeck Road, which has suffered massive traffic congestion since February 2011 when the ICC opened.