Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993 TAG: 9309240150
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Marye, invited to speak by commission Chairman Jack M. Lewis, decried the "smart road" as a pork-barrel project and said he had met few people in his district - which includes all of the New River Valley except Giles County - who favor building the 5.7-mile, two-lane highway linking Blacksburg to Interstate 81 between Christiansburg and the Ironto exit.
The 20-year Senate veteran said the project primarily would benefit Roanoke. More important to New River Valley residents, he said, would be completing the proposed U.S. 460 bypass designed to relieve congestion on U.S. 460 between Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
"I love those good folks down in Roanoke, but they can't agree amongst themselves," Marye said. "I don't know why in the world we should be helping them; we need to help ourselves."
Marye suggested looking into road projects that would make Virginia Tech more accessible to the rest of Southwest Virginia, rather than the Roanoke Valley.
"We've got more to offer Roanoke than they've got to offer us," he said. "We ought to think about looking out for ourselves rather than looking the other way."
But the Economic Development Commission, with one opposing vote, went on record in the research road's favor.
Commissioners learned last week that without the "smart road" to handle an estimated 20,000 Blacksburg-to-Roanoke cars a day by 2005, another of their major projects may be hampered.
A Virginia Department of Transportation official said without the road, the proposed interchange of I-81 and the second U.S. 460 bypass beside the county's Falling Branch industrial park site will not include a full, four-way exchange because traffic volume would be too heavy. Access to the area just outside Christiansburg instead would be from a limited high-speed interchange, similar to the confluence of Interstate 581 and I-81 near Roanoke.
In its resolution, the commission cited the potential economic benefit to Montgomery County: "The `smart road' will provide an economic development boost . . . as it will serve to attract and retain quality industries and businesses involved in `smart road' technologies."
Virginia Tech's Larry Hincker, who spoke after Marye, said the university has $3 million worth of "smart road" research under way. Estimates are that if the proposal is chosen as a federal test project, $350 million in research and development money could come into the New River Valley, said Hincker, Tech's director of university relations.
Where the estimated $82 million to build the road would come from remains unclear. Officials expect federal assistance if the road is adopted as one of two national tests of new highway and vehicle technologies that advocates say could improve traffic flow and safety in rural and urban areas.
Lewis, pointing to a Roanoke Times & World-News "Peril and Promise" installment published Sunday, said one of the problems in the Roanoke and New River valleys is the lack of business ties and easy accessibility to other metropolitan areas in Virginia. The road would develop such a tie and dovetail with the interest in highway research.
"It's a federal priority," Lewis said. "Why not put it right here? The economic impact of it is very compelling."
Marye's opposition is not unprecedented. In 1992 he voiced concerns when partial funding for the project surfaced as part of a $443 million transportation bond referendum proposal. Marye removed funding for the "smart road" and substituted the 460 bypass project in committee, but his action was reversed in the House of Delegates. Eventually both projects made it onto the bill that Gov. Douglas Wilder vetoed.
"An awful lot of people think about it as a pork-barrel project at a crucial time in our nation's history," Marye said. "I don't know if this sends the right message. I don't know if the public in this area supports it."
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.