Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990 TAG: 9003162888
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES and DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Meanwhile, Gov. Douglas Wilder also went to Congress to talk about road-building - and criticized a Bush administration plan that would make states pay a greater share of highway costs.
Testifying before a congressional panel for the first time since he took office in January, Wilder asked that the federal government stop hoarding federal fuel taxes and return more of the money to the states.
The money in the Highway Trust Fund is earmarked for specific states although the federal government often declines to return it; by the end of this fiscal year, Virginia's portion would be some $179 million.
"My request is simple: Let our money go," Wilder told the House Surface Transportation subcommittee. "These are monies that have been paid in motor fuel taxes intended for highway improvements in the commonwealth, but are being held hostage in the Old Executive Office Building where they are not doing anyone any good."
Wilder asked the federal government to renew its road-building partnership with the states and, "as a foundation for that partnership, we believe that the federal government should give to the taxpayers the transportation improvements for which their federal gasoline dollars have already paid."
But according to Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, the committee seemed most interested in the smart road, excitedly pressing Wilder for details on the project Boucher had proposed the same morning.
Panel Chairman Norman Mineta, D-Calif., later told Boucher that the direct link proposal for Western Virginia marked the "first time a congressman has come before his committee with a concrete proposal on smart highways."
Boucher asked the panel to earmark $95 million in the 1991 federal highway bill for a six-mile link between Blacksburg and Interstate 81. Officials estimate the four-lane road would cost some $117 million, but they have thus far been unable to put a price tag on the "smart road" technology - including a fifth lane that would be built for testing.
Smart cars and smart roads - what experts call "Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems" - would help speed traffic, make it safer and be less environmentally damaging, Boucher told the panel. Initially the road would test driver information concepts such as lane sensors, later developing automated vehicle systems, or smart cars.
"The project will develop, test and evaluate specific . . . technologies and determine their impact on the economic development of the region," Boucher testified. "To my knowledge, this would be the first `intelligent highway' to be constructed from the ground up in the United States."
Boucher was joined by Antoine Hobeika, a Tech engineering professor and smart-road expert; Dick Robers, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and a vocal supporter of the project; and Steve Musselwhite, a Roanoke insurance executive who sits on the state Transportation Board. Only Boucher testified.
In an interview after the hearing, Boucher called the proposal a request for "special funding" that would augment the state's share of federal highway money and would be appropriated separately.
"I'll be very surprised if we get everything that we asked for. But on the other hand I think we made a very concrete proposal," he said. If approved by Congress, the balance of the project would be funded by state and local governments as well as private sources.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, asked the committee for $67 million to $79 million to complete the proposed Roanoke River Parkway, which would run 10 miles from Vinton to the proposed Explore Park and on to Hardy Ford.
Olin acknowledged that Congress might be reluctant to provide the entire amount at once. "We realize that we may have to build the road in sections over a period of years," he said.
Significantly, however, Olin made it clear which section he thinks Congress should mandate first. "I want to stress that it is essential that the first section be the one that links the Blue Ridge Parkway with the Explore project," Olin said.
In 1987, Congress and the state provided nearly $15 million for the scenic road in the last federal highway bill - a figure then thought sufficient to build the entire road.
But now the road's cost has risen dramatically, and federal parkway planners say they may not have enough money to build even the 2 1/2-mile link from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the proposed Explore living history state park.
That connection is crucial for Explore, because that would be the only public access to the proposed tourist attraction.
Yet parkway planners have suggested they might want to build another part of the river parkway first.
Besides coming down firmly on the side of the Explore connection, Olin held out the possibility that the parkway's cost may actually come down as planners do more detailed engineering studies. "I expect plenty of head-knocking to be done to achieve this objective," Olin said.
by CNB