Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 22, 1994 TAG: 9401220286
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The routes Goodlatte supports would bring both proposed roads - Interstate 73 and the TransAmerica Highway (also referred to as Interstate 66) - through the Roanoke Valley.
But Goodlatte's routes differ from those proposed by Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, in a resolution Cranwell introduced Thursday in the House of Delegates.
Goodlatte called Cranwell on Friday and suggested they work together on locating the roads, and Cranwell agreed. But Cranwell has not changed his mind on where the roads should be located.
I-73 would link Detroit with Charleston, S.C. The TransAmerica Highway - a much-less defined concept - would connect the port of Hampton Roads in Virginia with Goodlatte would have I-73 enter Virginia at Bluefield on U.S. 460 and the TransAmerica highway enter the state on Interstate 64 near Covington. Cranwell's resolution has the two roads doing just the opposite. Los Angeles.
Construction on either road would probably not begin for at least a decade, Goodlatte said.
Goodlatte's and Cranwell's proposals differ not in location, but in which road will run on which route.
Goodlatte would have I-73 enter Virginia at Bluefield on U.S. 460 and the TransAmerica highway enter the state on Interstate 64 near Covington. Cranwell's resolution has the two roads doing just the opposite.
Goodlatte said it would be impossible to bring I-73 in at Covington, because the road's route in West Virginia has already been established as running from Huntington to Bluefield along U.S. 52.
Planning money for that route was inserted in the 1991 federal law by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the surface transportation subcommittee.
Goodlatte supports a route for I-73 that would follow U.S. 460 from Bluefield to Blacksburg, where it could pick up the route of the proposed "smart road" to Interstate 81. It would then follow I-81 to Roanoke, where it would generally trace U.S. 220 south to the North Carolina line.
He backs a route for the TransAmerica Highway that would enter Virginia on I-64 near Covington, follow U.S. 220 from Clifton Forge to Roanoke and U.S. 460 from Roanoke through Lynchburg onto Norfolk.
Once they reach Roanoke from West Virginia, Cranwell's and Goodlatte's proposed routes are identical as they moved toward Norfolk.
The main benefit to Roanoke from his plan would be an improved connection with North Carolina, Goodlatte said. It would also provide Lynchburg, the largest city in America without an interstate highway, with an interstate, he said.
While Goodlatte hopes to get Roanoke-area policy-makers behind the routes he supports, he may face opposition east and west of Roanoke, where others have been making a case to have I-73 run through their communities.
by CNB