Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990 TAG: 9003023340
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Her grammar may have been a bit faulty but her sentiment was absolutely correct. Several contradictory highway proposals had been made for the U.S. 460 corridor connecting Roanoke, Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
Since then, local governments have talked and squabbled continuously over those yellow bricks. But everyone agrees the current highway system is not getting the job done. Everyone also agrees that, if no improvements are made, the situation is only going to get worse.
This week, the Virginia Department of Transportation released its study of the issue, and made suggestions about possible new roads. The report contains no real surprises; all the suggestions have been made before. But the report does show that one proposed link between Blacksburg and Roanoke is clearly preferable.
The report lists seven alternatives: three prospective routes for a new road between Roanoke and Blacksburg, and four methods for easing the traffic crunch between Blacksburg and Christiansburg. It also estimates the costs for each in terms of dollars and of human and environmental disruption.
Between Blacksburg and Roanoke, the clearly preferable alternative is the 5.7-mile road that would roughly parallel Virginia 641. At $147 million, it's the least expensive of the three choices. It would trim the drive between Roanoke and Blacksburg to 28 minutes, only a minute more than the other two. It would displace far fewer families and businesses, and it is environmentally superior: It doesn't disturb the North Fork of the Roanoke River and the tiny logperch fish that lives there. The other two routes would.
The four alternatives for easing congestion in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg corridor don't present so clear a choice. Estimated costs range from $76 million for widening U.S. 460 to eight lanes, to $123 million for a new road paralleling U.S. 460. The changes are expensive but inevitable. The Transportation Department estimates that 51,000 cars a day will be using that road by the year 2015.
Both the new Blacksburg-Roanoke link and the U.S. 460 modification, whatever form it takes, are necessary improvements. Now is not the time to reopen the argument over which should be built first. This is a both-and, not an either-or, situation. In fact, the two problems are so tightly interrelated that the Transportation Department figured costs of improvements to U.S. 460 into the Roanoke-Blacksburg alternatives.
Handling the growing traffic between Blacksburg and Christiansburg is an immediate concern. But a road that cuts to less than a half-hour the drive between Virginia Tech and the Roanoke Regional Airport is a necessary long-term investment that should not be put off.
A direct link between Roanoke and Virginia Tech means much more than shaving a few minutes off a commute. At the least, it would mean easier day-to-day living for many residents of the Roanoke and New River valleys. At most, it is the next step in encouraging development along the lines of North Carolina's Research Triangle, an investment with incalculable returns.
The hard part is paying for the new roads. An expense of this size probably can't come from conventional funding sources. But other sources do exist.
In 1991, federal highway money will be handled differently; the link could be built as part of the interstate system. If, as some have suggested, the road is used for "smart" highway research, it might be funded by a combination of private and public monies. Closer to home, the General Assembly has already given preliminary approval to legislation that would allow state and local governments to use special pledge bonds - distinct from general-obligation bonds - to pay for transportation projects.
Funding is still speculative. But the Transportation Department study has produced details where before there were none. Cooperation among area governments is essential. As sources of highway money become available, the Roanoke and New River valleys ought to be prepared to speak with one voice about where the yellow bricks should go.
by CNB