Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 31, 1994 TAG: 9401310106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
\ It's not often that the Virginia Department of Transportation has so many people begging for a new road, but that's the case with a proposed interstate highway that would pass through Southwest Virginia - Interstate 73.
But the effort some communities are putting into winning I-73 may be wasted for a couple of reasons.
First, the route picked for the segment of the road running through West Virginia eliminates some proposed Virginia routes.
Second, the seven choices for routing I-73 through Southwest Virginia fall within the following extremes:
Spend a couple of thousand dollars for new signs and run the road along existing I-77 in Bland, Wythe and Carroll counties.
Spend hundreds of millions and go miles out of the way to build a brand-new road farther east, perhaps through Roanoke.
I-73 is one of 21 high-priority road projects that would fill gaps in the nation's interstate highway system that are identified in the 1991 federal transportation bill - the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act. The 900-mile road would link Detroit and Charleston, S.C.
The proposed road's history can be traced to 1979, when a group of West Virginians began an effort to improve U.S. 52 between Bluefield and Huntington, W.Va.
In 1990, they broadened the effort to include support for I-73, said K.A. Ammar Jr., a Bluefield businessman and chairman of the Bluefield to Huntington Highway Association.
Through the efforts of the West Virginia congressional delegation - which includes Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Surface Transportation Subcommittee, and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee - the 1991 federal law established the current path of U.S. 52 between Huntington and Bluefield as I-73's route in West Virginia.
No other West Virginia routes are being considered for the road, said Paul Wilkinson with that state's Department of Transportation.
The 1991 federal law also included nearly $120 million for planning and some construction of I-73 in West Virginia - and West Virginia will begin work within a year. Wilkinson said West Virginia can go ahead with improvements to U.S. 52 and later easily upgrade the road to interstate status.
North Carolina has also agreed to a tentative route for the road, according to Bill Johnson, a spokesman for that state's Department of Transportation.
The 1991 federal law says the road must run through Winston-Salem. Johnson said North Carolina expects the road to enter from Virginia on I-77 and follow U.S. 52 from Mount Airy to Winston-Salem. From there, it would bear east and follow a variety of routes until it reached U.S. 17 and entered South Carolina near Myrtle Beach.
Compared with other states, Virginians gave little attention to I-73 until the middle of 1993, when Southwest Virginia communities from Wise County to Lynchburg began passing resolutions asking for the road.
Ammar, the Bluefield I-73 booster, said Virginia's late interest was not because Virginia officials didn't know about the proposed road.
Over the past five years, his group has sent 500 pieces of mail about the road to members of Congress, transportation department officials and local governing bodies in Virginia, Ammar said. "I guess they didn't pay much attention to us," he said.
\ Va. arrives late
The Virginia Department of Transportation didn't push ahead with planning for the road because it wasn't considered high priority. "I guess we didn't necessarily see the urgency for it, because there was no money associated with it," said Bruce Clarke, an assistant state transportation planning engineer.
Steve Musselwhite of Vinton, who served as the Salem District's representative on the state transportation board until last year, said the board, faced with more-pressing issues at the time, discussed the road little.
Former Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, who represented the area when the 1991 federal highway bill was passed, said he wasn't aware of the I-73 proposal until it became a matter of widespread public discussion last year.
It's not clear whether Olin would have supported bringing the road through Roanoke, if he had been aware of it. Olin said he's not sure Roanoke, which already has good access to the interstate system, needs any more roads.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said he started discussing I-73 with Transportation Commissioner Ray Pethtel two years ago.
Boucher said he asked the state Transportation Department six months ago to develop the technical data needed for a full evaluation of all proposed routes.
"The goal I have, frankly, is when a new interstate is built, we get the maximum economic benefit," Boucher said.
That means the state should consider routes through areas that don't have interstates, he said. One such route that he wanted to make sure was considered by state planners would take the road from Bluefield to North Carolina through Tazewell, Smyth and Grayson counties.
While Boucher has not endorsed any one route, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, has.
Goodlatte supports a route for I-73 that would follow U.S. 460 and I-81 from Bluefield to Roanoke, incorporating the Blacksburg-to-Roanoke "smart road" along the way. From Roanoke, it would follow U.S. 220 south to North Carolina.
The congressman's proposal put him at odds with the majority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates, Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County. Cranwell has introduced a resolution calling on the General Assembly to support a route for I-73 that would bring it into Virginia on existing I-64 near Covington in Alleghany County and down U.S. 220 from Clifton Forge to Roanoke.
Both Goodlatte and Cranwell have tied their I-73 proposals to the routing of another proposed interstate highway that would run from Norfolk to Los Angeles.
That road, which is part of the TransAmerican Transportation Corridor study, is less certain, however. It could end up not being a road at all, but a high-speed rail line that could bypass much of Virginia altogether.
Goodlatte's and Cranwell's routes for I-73 and the new TransAmerica road are essentially opposites. Goodlatte would run I-73 from Bluefield to Roanoke, and the TransAmerica road from Covington to Roanoke; Cranwell, the other way around. Once in Roanoke, both suggest I-73 run down U.S. 220 to North Carolina; the TransAmerica road, often referred to as I-66, would run from Roanoke along U.S. 460 to Norfolk.
Goodlatte's route has its backers in the state legislature. Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, and Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, have announced their support. The road debate in the Roanoke Valley has fallen along party lines, at least for the moment.
Cranwell's route may be dead already.
West Virginia's decision to locate I-73 on the Bluefield-Huntington Route, which is backed up by West Virginia's powerful congressional delegation, seems to rule out Cranwell's proposal and another to put the road along U.S. 23 in Wise and Scott counties.
The Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority recognized the political reality when it endorsed Goodlatte's proposal Wednesday.
From Bluefield, Ammar has watched the jockeying among Virginia localities for I-73 with some frustration.
He seems particularly put off by Cranwell's proposal, which originated with Frank Longaker, the president of National Business College in Salem. Cranwell would take Bluefield off I-73, which would be moved farther east in West Virginia. That's something that will not happen, Ammar said.
"He's walking in at the 11th hour, and he's saying reroute the whole United States," Ammar said of Longaker.
Ammar wants the Virginia route to remain as originally conceived: the shortest and cheapest route, the one along I-77.
Boucher has expressed doubts about the I-77 route because of the impossibility of widening two sets of tunnels in Big Walker and East River mountains to accommodate six lanes of traffic.
But the tunnels, which carry 23,000 cars a day at their peak, could handle many more, Ammar said.
Carl Stark of Wytheville is president of the Great Lakes to Florida Highway Association, which was instrumental in getting I-77 built. Stark supports running I-73 along I-77 in Virginia.
One estimate of the cost of building I-73 from Bluefield through Roanoke and Martinsville is $1.5 billion, where a couple of thousand dollars for signs would be the only cost of using I-77, Stark said.
The state will end up paying a lot of money to send freight to the port at Charleston if it takes the Roanoke route, Stark said. A better use of the money would be to improve U.S. 460 from Bluefield to Norfolk, he said.
And if the Roanoke route is selected, Stark said, travelers heading south will just look at the map and see that a closer route would be to get off I-73 at Bluefield and follow I-77 to North Carolina and vice versa.
After the public meetings, the transportation department's staff will make a recommendation in March on where the road should go. But the state transportation board may wait on an environmental impact study before making a decision, Clarke said.
The Roanoke route may have the inside track with the Transportation Department staff. Richard Lockwood, the state's chief planning engineer, said in December that the 460/220 route would serve the most people and have the potential to trigger much economic development.
While the state and federal governments cooperate to build interstate highways, 80 percent of the money comes from the federal government. Congress ultimately would have the final word on where the roads go.
Congress is scheduled to vote this year on a National Highway System proposed in December by the Federal Highway Administration and called for by the 1991 act.
That bill will include money for road construction - and will officially establish a route for I-73, Boucher said.
by CNB