Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990 TAG: 9006150314
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This spring, public hearings were held in each of the nine construction districts in the state. And in May, the board gave tentative approval to a six-year spending plan.
The board is to give final approval to the plan next month.
Only 30 or so people from the western-most construction districts attended the meeting, held at the Salem District office.
Bedford County Administrator William Rolfe urged the board to speed up improvements to U.S. 24 between Vinton and Stewartsville.
State Sen. Granger Macfarlane of Roanoke said the board needed to update its estimate of the cost of the proposed Roanoke River Parkway, which would link the Blue Ridge Parkway with the Explore park. The estimate of $15 million should be raised to at least $100 million, he said.
Macfarlane, a critic of Explore, said the $3 million already allocated to the parkway should be used instead to improve roads around Smith Mountain Lake.
The parkway is in the six-year plan, but gets no additional money.
The board has allocated an additional $925,000 in 1990-1992 for planning and engineering on the proposed eastern bypass around Roanoke. That would make a total of $3,925,000 spent on planning and engineering for the bypass.
A proposal to route a part of the bypass along the current Blue Ridge Parkway corridor is still being studied.
There is no money in the six-year plan for the proposed expressway linking Blacksburg with Interstate 81. Special funding - by bonds, for example - will be needed for the expressway.
Money also is included in the six-year plan for improvements to U.S. 221 south of Roanoke, to Plantation Road between U.S. 11 and Interstate 81 and to U.S. 220 in Botetourt County at the Alleghany County line.
by CNB