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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992                   TAG: 9202210153
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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U.S. 460 BOTTLENECK TOO NERVE-WRACKING

Each time those for and against the Alternate 3 route proposal go to battle, the lines are drawn with regard to the local and, for the most part, selfish interests, referred to as needs, of Montgomery County, Christiansburg, Blacksburg and, oh yes, the Ellett Valley proponents who seem to feel the need for a new local highway but not the bypass.

There is another world out there and that is the thousands of drivers over the mountains who, for business, professional and medical reasons, must use the U.S. 460 corridor . . . who feel entrapped by the bottleneck between Blacksburg and Interstate 81.

The Alternate 3A bypass proposal does little to relieve the mental anguish and strain caused by bumper-to-bumper traffic and tie-ups of the existing roadway that will continue to exist on a Virginia 114 bypass.

Those "experts" who, with their stopwatches, claim a savings of only eight minutes, under what must be the ideal conditions of traffic, didn't take into consideration the daily stress that thousands of drivers must suffer as they attempt to safely negotiate the route between Blacksburg and I-81.

Taxpayers along the 460 corridor in Southwest Virginia, West Virginia and on into the Midwest (look at the license plates) would breathe a sigh of relief to know that an Alternate 3 route was on the drawing board and . . . the "obstacle course" that detracts from 460 being a desirable cross-state highway . . . was on its way to being eliminated.\ Dan Level\ Pearisburg

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