Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 31, 1990 TAG: 9005310427
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"There's no earthly point," said one woman.
"It'll take out half of my front yard," said another.
"I think it's . . . not for publication," said Louisa Decker, when asked what she thought of the project, then added, "It's unnecessary."
Their views were shared by most of the citizens who pored over aerial maps and diagrams of the project at the Virginia Department of Transportation public information meeting.
Petitions calling on Town Council to change its plans circulated outside the meeting room, and were filling up fast.
"We're going to do what we can, we're going to keep writing letters and we're going to keep packing Town Council meetings" to stop the project, Decker said.
The proposal would extend Patrick Henry Drive into a semi-circle - four lanes north to Toms Creek Road, and two lanes south to South Main Street to form a major intersection at Airport Road.
The so-called Patrick Henry "loop" has been on the town's list of things to do for almost 20 years as a way to ease traffic downtown and provide more access to eastern Blacksburg.
"It doesn't go away because the need for this network increases every year," said Mayor Roger Hedgepeth.
The project moved to third place on the town's priority list several years ago, and the highway department has been working on designs since then.
Three alternatives for the southern part of the extension run from Harding Street to South Main Street, each taking an undetermined number of houses.
In addition, five alternative designs for the intersection at Airport Road would take at least four houses in the Miller-Southside Historic District, which is eligible for national historic status.
"This whole business where it comes into Main Street is a terrible design," said Hedgepeth, who came to the meeting. "I don't think council feels well at all about doing away with people's houses and probably won't."
But, he said, the town wants to reserve land in the area behind Blacksburg Middle School - between Harding and South Main streets - for future roads before development makes it impossible.
At least one person at the meeting agreed with the mayor on that point, saying he was in favor of the proposal as a whole, though not necessarily the intersection.
"I'm just concerned that some people are giving a knee jerk response to progress," said Phil Shepard, who lives in Windsor Hills.
Highway department studies show that traffic downtown will increase 30 percent over the next 20 years, pushing the two-lane road beyond its capacity. "People are more mobile, so you're going to have more traffic whether you have an increase in population or not," said Dan Brugh, resident engineer with the department.
But opponents contend that downtown traffic is minimal, and doesn't warrant a major road extension at the expense of existing neighborhoods.
Airport Road resident Jim Hassall, who works at Poly-Scientific on North Main Street, has been clocking his commute time for almost a year.
It takes him between three and six minutes to go either way, including time spent at red lights, he said. "It's inconvenient at times, but inconvenience is not the same as traffic."
Council member Michael Chandler, who was also at the meeting, said he's opposed the project for the past 15 years.
"I still don't understand why the town wants to build the project," he said. "I don't think it's good public policy to throw people out of their homes to save 90 seconds or 120 seconds."
Chandler said he would be willing to propose dropping the southern half of the project altogether at an upcoming council meeting.
Under the project's current schedule, right-of-way acquisition would be completed by 1993.
Although Town Council asked the highway department in April to put another project - the Country Club Drive/Hubbard Street extension - ahead of Patrick Henry Drive, Brugh said the town's wishes are unclear. The department is asking the town to clarify in writing exactly what it wants.
"It is clearly, unequivocally, unequivocally council's wish that the Country Club/Hubbard Street extension receive higher attention than Patrick Henry," Town Manager Ron Secrist said.
Blacksburg asked the department to begin acquiring property for the Patrick Henry project, Secrist said, but not before council gives final approval to the design, scheduled for mid-1992.
by CNB