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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994                   TAG: 9403170099
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

BOARD ASKED TO RECONSIDER U.S. 58 ROUTE

The board had put 58 on a new alignment along I-81 from Abingdon to Marion and from Marion south through the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area to Volney in Grayson County.

Joseph Rhea Jr. of Damascus said he wants the board to consider putting U.S. 58 back on a path that would more closely follow the current route for the road, which leads from Abingdon to Damascus in southern Washington County and then roughly parallels the Virginia-North Carolina line to Volney.

At Highway Commissioner Ray Pethtel's suggestion, Rhea said he would bring a formal resolution asking for the change to a future board meeting.

The transportation board adopted a corridor for the new routing of U.S. 58 at its May 1992 board meeting. The Virginia General Assembly passed special legislation in 1989 to pay for four-laning and other improvements to the road, which stretches from Cumberland Gap to Hampton Roads.

In 1993, the board authorized a consultant to take another look at improving the original Damascus-to-Volney route, primarily with the thought that it might be improved anyway with regular highway funds in coming years. Current plans also call for improving the road from Abingdon to Damascus.

Rhea said he was named to the board because of his efforts to see U.S. 58 improved. The road means a lot to people in his area, he said.

"We just thought it was the Lord talking to us alone," when the legislature passed U.S. 58 funding legislation, he said.

People in Washington and Grayson counties were disappointed when a consultant recommended the I-81 route for 58, he said. That was not what the General Assembly voted for, he said.

Still, Rhea voted with the board when it unanimously decided in 1992 to route the road on I-81. For the benefit of nine new members named to the board by Gov. George Allen, he explained that he had tried to get the previous board to reconsider the issue but didn't have the votes.

"Never in our wildest dreams did we think it would be moved out of Damascus," he said.

The new route brings the road through the national recreation area, "the most beautiful and pristine land in this nation," he said. "We just don't want it torn up."

Rhea said the route that was picked for the road cost former Del. G.C. Jennings, D-Marion, his seat in the legislature. Jennings' successor, Del. Barnes Lee Kidd, R-Tazewell, who was at the Wednesday board meeting, agreed that the highway issue was what cost Jennings the election.

Rhea suggested that the board change the route to a new one that came out of the study authorized in 1993. This route - for a two-lane road with passing lanes on hills - would parallel the existing road slightly to the south.

Chris Lloyd of the consulting firm McGuire Associates of Virginia Beach, said building the road along the Damascus-to-Volney route would cost $178.3 million and involve moving enough dirt to fill the Richmond Coliseum 85 times.

Transportation Department officials said the cost of building U.S. 58 from I-81 to Volney is roughly $60 million.

Pethtel said if the board decides to take another look at the route, it will require another study and more public hearings, which would take 12 months before a vote on the proposal.

Ralph Blevins of Whitetop, chairman of the Grayson County Planning Commission, said his county wants to keep the U.S. 58 designation on the road, because as a primary highway, it gets priority for repairs and snow removal.

Keywords:
POLITICS