Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993 TAG: 9302200163
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
DESIGN FOR SMART ROAD GOING TO COLLEGE
VIRGINIA TECH will get to do the tinkering on the technology for a smart highway between Roanoke and Blacksburg. Whether the road actually will be built is by no means certain, but the funding for the research is expected in a a month or so.State and university leaders signed a memorandum of understanding Thursday that paves the way for Virginia Tech to help the Department of Transportation design a smart road between Roanoke and Blacksburg.
The Transportation Department had hoped to announce its financial commitment to Tech on Friday, but couldn't negotiate until an environmental impact study is completed.
That study should be finished in about six to eight weeks, said Ray Pethtel, state transportation commissioner. "That's when we'll talk dollars and cents."
Wayne Clough, Tech's dean of engineering, said the university will help make major decisions on the road. If there are temperature sensors that would warn drivers of road conditions, for example, Tech would help decide where they would be most effective: under the pavement, in the pavement or in a bump on top of the pavement.
"It's a marriage of the research university with the folks who can apply it," Clough said.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, announced that Tech will be the primary recipient of a $1.37 million grant from the federal government for research on smart road technologies. Exact amounts have not been determined, but parts of the grant will go to Hughes Aircraft, Bell Atlantic Corp. and a consulting group called JHK & Associates.
"This will help put Tech at the front of an emerging field," Boucher said.
The federal government already had approved $5.9 million in funding to pay for planning for the road in an allocation to the Department of Transportation.
The department will fund Tech's research with a significant number of those dollars, said Larry Hincker, Tech spokesman.
The smart road, which will allow researchers to test innovative electronic and fiber-optic technologies geared at increasing highway speed and safety, has been referred to by many as the "proposed project."
But, though there are certainly opponents, those who favor the project spoke of no "if's" on Friday, only "when's."
"The federal government has made a major commitment to develop this type of technology," Boucher said at a breakfast honoring National Engineers Week.
"It's an idea whose time has come," Pethtel said. "The promise is here."
The meeting Friday was something of a refresher course in smart road technology.
It has been about 10 months since any major news has been released about the road, one of the hottest topics in the New River and Roanoke valleys.
The last news came in April when Gov. Douglas Wilder vetoed a bill that would have allowed a bond for $28 million for the road.
"I hope we get it back in '94," said Gordon Willis, head of the University Connection, a group promoting the link. "We're working on it."
Pethtel said he didn't know what the General Assembly would do next session. But he added that, especially in a peace-time economy, engineers will need to devote energy to projects like this, projects that will promote safety.
A test road would do better in a more rural area, where researchers can take the time to experiment with the new technology, Pethtel said.
"You can't do research with 100,000 cars on the road. You couldn't do it in Northern Virginia."
Memo: Correction ***CORRECTION***