Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993 TAG: 9304160095
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION TURNS TO PROTECTING ROAD
The Great Lakes to Florida Highway Association spent decades generating support for better highways, particularly Interstate 77, in Virginia and other states.Now that Interstate 77 is complete in Southwest Virginia, it might seem that the organization can sit back and rest on its laurels.
Instead, it is now working to protect the highway it helped to promote.
The organization was headed for most of its years by Jim Williams, during the time he ran the twice-a-week Southwest Virginia Enterprise and before he became incapacitated by a stroke. Governors and highway officials are among those who have paid tribute to him for his role in highway promotion, usually during ribbon-cuttings opening new sections of road.
Jack King is its new chairman and Fay Lambert, its new treasurer. Both live in Bland County.
Dr. Carl Stark, a former Wytheville mayor and long-time member of the organization, is its spokesman lately at governmental meetings and elsewhere - most recently last Tuesday before the Wythe County Board of Supervisors.
He noted the association's efforts to keep similar supporters of Interstate 91 from re-routing traffic south from Canada onto its road. "They said we couldn't handle the snow," he said.
This was before parts of Interstate 77, along with other Virginia highways, were closed during last month's blizzard of '93. Nobody could handle that particular snow.
Efforts are also underway to bring Interstate 73 down from West Virginia and route its traffic onto Interstate 77, which already shares one nine-mile section in eastern Wythe County with Interstate 81, Stark said. And the upgrading of U.S. 58 across the bottom of Virginia may see part of it re-routed onto Interstate 77, he noted.
All of this would increase the already-heavy traffic on Interstate 77, which already sees long lines of backed-up vehicles during holiday traffic peaks. Lanes cannot be added to its two mountain tunnels near Bluefield, W.Va., and the Wythe-Bland county border, Stark pointed out, so bottlenecks could be unavoidable there during heavy travel.
He said the association tries to make its voice heard on these matters before decisions are made at the state level and set in stone. "All these things are going to affect Wythe County, and we want to be in on the ground floor."
As part of its promotional activity, the association is distributing 10,000 copies of a new color brochure mapping Interstate 77 and its various highway offshoots and carrying advertising from along its corridor. The association has its headquarters at 565 W. Spring St. in Wytheville.