Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990 TAG: 9003071777
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Besides 100,000 square feet of retail and office space, Price plans a 200-room hotel, restaurant and 450-seat convention center. The complex, near Price's Holiday Inn, would create 375 jobs, project engineer Don Rainey said.
Price was one of 50 speakers who told Department of Transportation officials Tuesday which route to ease New River Valley traffic was best - or worst.
Officials are studying seven alternatives. Three would link Blacksburg to Interstate 81 and the Roanoke Valley, three others would relieve traffic congestion between Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and the seventh calls for simply widening the existing U.S. 460 to eight lanes.
Dan Brugh, resident engineer for the Department of Transportation, said details of the interchange that Price fears, and other features of the routes under study, are far from final.
"When we get into final design, odds are that the interchange will not look like that," he said.
The seven-hour public hearing at the Holiday Inn offered few other surprises. Route 3A, one of the proposed U.S. 460 bypasses, received the most support, followed by Route 6, which would link Blacksburg to Interstate 81.
Routes 7 and 10, which would run between Blacksburg and Ironto, were roundly criticized as too expensive and environmentally damaging.
Department officials kept everyone to a five-minute time limit - enforced, fittingly, by an electronic version of a traffic light. A green light meant proceed, a yellow meant hurry up and a red meant time was up.
Virtually everyone who spoke endorsed a route of some sort. One exception was Alwyn Moss of Blacksburg, who criticized the "accepted economic premise that only by relentless, unending growth and development can we hold our own on this battlefield of a competitive economy."
She said the valley was "hooked like a drug addict" on the notion that development was good. "Our progress can be our doom. . . . What horrible world are we leaving for our children?"
As expected, New River Valley governments endorsed Routes 3A, 6 or both. Virginia Tech also reaffirmed its commitment to solving both the local traffic congestion and getting a direct link to the interstate.
Also lending support to a road or roads were members of The University Connection, a group of business and political leaders from the Roanoke and New River valleys; a number of state legislators, including a couple from Southside Virginia; and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon.
Brugh said the general agreement would make it easier for department officials to make a recommendation. The state Transportation Board will make the ultimate decision in three or four months.
One of the few defenders of Routes 7 and 10 was Larry Landrum of Blacksburg. Landrum, using admittedly arbitrary figures, calculated that building Route 7 instead of the more popular 3A would save $335 million over 20 years. He based that on 17,000 trips per day at 25 cents a mile, and also factored in time savings valued at $8 an hour.
But many others favor Route 6, which has emerged as a compromise choice for those who want a Blacksburg-Roanoke link but wish to limit the environmental impact.
If that is the selection, E.F. Brusseau will be an unhappy man.
Brusseau, who lives near Virginia 723 in the Ellett Valley, said Route 6 would run next to - or through - the home he had hoped to leave to his children. Asked why relatively few of his similarly affected neighbors had attended the hearing, he said, "They feel you can't fight city hall.
"We're a handful of people in the valley fighting these corporate outfits. We haven't got the clout; we haven't got the money.
"You've got one hand tied behind you all the time."
by CNB