
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991                   TAG: 9104170467
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAUREL L. DAVIS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT ISN'T SMART TO BUILD `SMART ROAD'

IT'S HARD to imagine that anyone who lives in the New River Valley, with its wonderful mix of towns and farms nestled among the mountains, would subscribe to the vision of a megalopolis stretching from Blacksburg to Roanoke.

Yet this appears to be the dream of a powerful group of politicians and businessmen in Blacksburg and Roanoke, who have joined with Virginia Tech leaders in endorsing a four-lane "direct link" highway between Blacksburg and Interstate 81.

Steven Musselwhite, Southwest Virginia's representative on the state Transportation Board, is one of the highway's most ardent proponents. In June 1990, he sponsored a resolution, adopted by the board, to "protect" a corridor for the link highway. The Blacksburg-Roanoke direct-link highway, he said, "is an economic-development project, as we see it . . . . I see one day a megalopolis forming" between the New River and Roanoke valleys.

Proponents of a link highway continue to push for federal and state money to build it, even though traffic patterns do not justify it.

Commuting-pattern studies show that the real need is improved travel within the New River Valley, especially along the U.S. 460 corridor between Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The Transportation Board has approved construction of a new U.S. 460 bypass, which should alleviate this problem.

The new bypass also will connect to Interstate 81 at Christiansburg, shortening travel time to Roanoke. If the direct-link highway is built, it will cut just six minutes from travel to Roanoke via the new 460 bypass.

Taxpayers will pay dearly for these six minutes. The road's projected cost is $117 million - about $19.5 million for each minute.

Funding for the road is unlikely to come from the state Department of Transportation's Salem District, which has a total budget of $129 million through 1996. Rather, we probably may soon see a highway-bond issue on a statewide ballot, packaging the direct-link highway with other, much-needed urban highway projects.

Thus, the fate of the scenic Ellett and Den Creek valleys, which lie in the path of the link highway, may be decided by voters in populous Richmond, Norfolk and Northern Virginia.

To make the project more palatable, proponents have coupled it to the concept of "smart road" technology - electronic sensors and similar devices to improve highway safety and efficiency.

Congressman Rick Boucher has said that he hopes to have a direct-link highway between Blacksburg and I-81 approved this year as a federal highway-demonstration project, so that research on "smart road" technology can be conducted along the route. But federal money would only cover the "smart" technology; $117 million would still be needed from the state.

If federal highway-demonstration funding for "smart road" technology can be obtained, why not apply it to I-81, where it is really needed?

Antoine Hobeika, director of Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation Research, has said that because I-81 carries a lot of truck traffic, it would be a good place to study how electronic message signs, pavement sensors and other "smart" technology could be used to improve safety on steep grades and in bad weather.

As you drive Virginia 641 through the valley of Den Creek, you are struck by its rugged beauty. The narrow valley is bordered by forested mountains rising sharply from the valley floor. The proposed "direct link" road would slice through these mountain ridges. It would spoil a significant amount of rural and rugged land, which is becoming ever more scarce in the New River Valley.

A proposed interchange in the Ellett Valley, just south of Ellett, may disrupt up to 50 acres of farmland, and would pave the way for the envisioned "megalopolis" between Blacksburg and Roanoke.

Meanwhile, the cogs of the machine that is propelling the link-highway project continue to turn. Tax dollars are being spent by the state Transportation Department's Salem District on an environmental-assessment study, which is needed to qualify the link highway for federal highway-demonstration funding.

Roads should be built to relieve severe traffic congestion, but only when studies show the need exists. Our tax dollars, whether state or federal, should not be spent on a road, such as the direct-link highway, for which there is no identified need.

Laurel L. Davis of Blacksburg is a member of the Transportation Committee of the New River Valley Environmental Coalition.

by CNB