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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994                   TAG: 9409290066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SENATE PASSES HIGHWAY-FUNDING BILL; I-83, OTHER NEW PROJECTS NOT INCLUDED

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed its version of a National Highway System bill last Thursday, but final congressional action on the bill may have to wait until 1995 and a new Congress.

Unlike the version of the bill that earlier passed the House of Representatives, the Senate bill does not contain any new road projects. The House bill contained 283 separate road projects costing a total of $1.4 billion.

One of the projects in the House bill was a proposed Interstate 83 that would link I-81 near Roanoke with I-40 near Greensboro, N.C. This project is not to be confused with existing I-83 that runs between Baltimore and Harrisburg, Pa.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, was instrumental in having $5 million for initial planning of the new interstate included in the House bill. The road would serve essentially as an improvement to the U.S. 220 link between Roanoke and Greensboro.

A conference committee from the Senate and House now must work out the differences between the two versions of the National Highway System legislation. The legislation was called for in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. The Congress has until Oct. 1, 1995, to complete work on the bill.

A Senate staffer who works on transportation issues and who asked not to be named said a conference committee on the legislation probably would not be convened before Congress adjourns early next month. Whether the legislation will have to make its way through the legislative process once again after this fall's elections will be up to the committee chairmen in the House and Senate, the staffer said.

State governments have worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation and Congress to identify more than 159,000 miles of existing roads for inclusion in the National Highway System.

The proposed system of high-priority roads accounts for only 4 percent of the total road mileage in the country but soon will carry 40 percent of the nation's traffic, including 70 percent of the truck traffic, according to the Senate committee handling the legislation.

The House version of the bill did not include a Virginia route for I-73, a proposed new interstate highway between Detroit and Charleston, S.C. The Virginia route was not designated in the legislation because West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina haven't agreed where the road should cross state borders.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board endorsed an I-73 route roughly following U.S. 460 from Bluefield to Roanoke and U.S. 220 from Roanoke to North Carolina. The proposed I-83 would incorporate the Roanoke-to-North Carolina part of that route.

The Senate version of the bill leaves the decision to add new roads to the National Highway System up to the secretary of transportation. The bill specifies that total mileage in the system not exceed 165,000 miles.

by CNB