Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992 TAG: 9203250337
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Jim Hopkins, chairman of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce's transportation committee, said six-laning the road "is very important" and "vital to the economies" of the cities of Salem and Roanoke,the counties of Roanoke, Montgomery, Botetourt and Franklin, and the town of Vinton.
John G. Milliken, the state secretary of transportation, said outside the hearing that his department has talked about adding extra lanes all along I-81.
But he said Hopkins' appearance at the department's hearing in Salem on 1992-93 spending was the first time it had been proposed formally.
Milliken said there are no firm cost estimates on such a project, but a rough department figure says it would cost $1 billion to add two extra lanes to 300-plus miles of four-lane I-81 in Virginia. That is about $3 million a mile.
Milliken said money for the six-laning would have to come from a national highway system fund established by Congress in its latest highway legislation.
He said the department has been studying improvements to Interstates 95 and 66 in eastern and Northern Virginia, and the Capital Beltway. Six-laning I-81 will be "the next project we will be ready for," Milliken said.
The transportation secretary said he thinks there is enough right of way along I-81 for the improvements, but "when you come to an interchange, that's a different problem."
Much of the land around interchanges is developed and privately owned.
The committee also asked for other, more familiar projects in the region - including completed improvements to Alternate U.S. 220 between I-81 and U.S. 460 at Bonsack in Botetourt County.
For the 1992-93 spending year, Milliken said, the state will get almost $764 million for building roads.
Several of the 10 state legislators who attended said they will work for a transportation bond issue that will be voted on this fall if Gov. Douglas Wilder signs the bill authorizing it.
Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said there is a question about the bond issue: "Is it going to be too much?"
Putney said it is a question of whether Virginia, for years a pay-as-you-go state, should go "a billion dollars, roughly, in debt at this time."
State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, said he didn't support the bond issue, but he told the board it would have to give the public a clear view of what the bond issue would do if it expects it to pass.
State Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, told the board it will have "to avoid projects which are perceived as pork barrel" to get voter approval.
Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg, said she worked for and supported the bond issue because increased construction is really an "economic recovery package."
by CNB