Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994 TAG: 9403180276
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
With surprisingly little debate, the Commonwealth Transportation Board on Thursday unanimously approved a U.S. 460/U.S. 220 route through the Roanoke and New River valleys for proposed Interstate 73.
Boosters of the 460/220 route - which would incorporate Virginia Tech's experimental "smart road" - immediately hailed the decision as a big step for economic development in the region.
Just the fact the road is planned will help efforts to attract new industry, said an elated Daniel "Bud" Oakey, vice president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Lorinda Lionberger of Salem, appointed to the board earlier this year by Gov. George Allen, made an eloquent argument for her motion that 460/220 become the state's preferred route for I-73, saying it was essential to the economic future of the region.
The 460/220 route passes through Giles, Montgomery, Roanoke, Franklin and Henry counties.
The only other proposed I-73 route receiving any support was one following Virginia 16 through Tazewell, Smyth and Grayson counties. But an amendment to designate it as the state's second choice failed.
Two routes that would have placed the proposed highway on I-77 in Bland, Wythe and Carroll counties were ranked first and third in a corridor study by the Virginia Department of Transportation planning staff, but neither route received any board support.
The staff found the I-77 routes - which differ only in the way they would bypass Wytheville - were nearly $500 million cheaper to build than the 460/220 route and would serve more traffic. But the study concluded the 460/220 route would attract more industry and create more jobs.
I-73 would link Detroit with Charleston, S.C., and would pass through six states. The Transportation Department staff studied seven possible corridors for the road, containing 12 alternative routes.
The board's preferred path for I-73 will be forwarded to Congress, which is considering legislation establishing a National Highway System containing the road. Congress, which provides 80 percent of the funding for interstate highways, will have the final say on the location of I-73.
Once Congress approves a location for the road, the state will do more detailed studies of the road's route and will ask the public for comment on those studies.
In making a case for the 460/220 corridor, Lionberger said that for most people in the board room, I-73 was just a green line on the map connecting West Virginia and North Carolina. But for roughly one million people who live and work along the 460/220 corridor, she said, it can have a "tremendous impact" on their economic future.
Lionberger zeroed in on the economic benefits the interstate would bring along the 220 section of the corridor south of Roanoke. Particularly in the Martinsville-Henry County area, economic growth is hindered by the lack of good roads, she said.
She praised the joint effort by Virginia and North Carolina localities, called Job Link, to get an interstate-quality road built along the U.S. 220 corridor between Roanoke and Greensboro.
"We are quite frankly concerned if U.S. 220 is not upgraded to interstate standards we might lose some [businesses]," she said.
Lionberger also argued for the benefits the road would bring to Virginia Tech, a major research university, and to the Roanoke Valley, which has become a distribution center for the East Coast.
She said grass-roots support was widespread for the 460/220 route and that freshman Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, won election to the General Assembly last year partially on the basis of his support for the highway.
Lionberger also told the board that people who were concerned about specific routes for the highway and its interchanges should be given a chance to be heard as the planning for the road continues.
After the meeting, Lionberger said she was "very in-tune with the questions and concerns of people in Blacksburg and Giles County," where local governments passed resolutions opposing the road earlier this week.
Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Robert Martinez and the board Thursday urging that a decision on I-73 be delayed until more hearings can be held on the issue. That letter was not mentioned in the meeting.
"I think I just heard a steamroller come by," Shuler aide Paul Mitchem said after the board's vote.
George Lester of Martinsville, chairman of Job Link, called the board's vote "a victory" for the people of Franklin and Henry counties, Martinsville and Rockingham County, N.C. The vote was a "first step" but much work remains to be done, he said.
Part of Lionberger's motion, approved by the board, asks that Congress extend the Coal Field's Expressway into Virginia and provide funds for building the extension of the road.
The expressway is a road from Beckley, W.Va., to the Virginia state line near Welch, W.Va. that was established and funded by Congress in 1991. Claude Garver, Virginia's assistant transportation commissioner, told the board that a logical extension of the expressway would bring it to I-81 along existing routes in Tazewell and Smyth counties.
However, board member Joseph Rhea Jr. of Damascus said he would like to see the expressway extended through Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties to U.S. 23 at Pound.
by CNB