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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 2, 1994                   TAG: 9402020258
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NARROWS                                 LENGTH: Medium

NARROWS FAVORS U.S. 460 ROUTE FOR INTERSTATE

Town officials came to a consensus Monday in favor of a route paralleling U.S. 460 for the proposed Interstate 73, but with several conditions.

Town Council and the Narrows Planning Commission met with approximately 35 residents Monday to talk over how I-73 - the proposed Michigan to South Carolina highway - could affect the 2,000-population town.

Following U.S. 460 through the water gap at Narrows is one of five ways the new interstate could enter Virginia from West Virginia. The other nearby option involves using the existing Interstate 77 tunnels through Big Walker and East River mountains.

Those five gateways lead to eight potential routes that the Virginia Department of Transportation has under study. State highway officials will host a public meeting from 4 to 7:30 p.m. today wednesdayat the Holiday Inn in Blacksburg to hear from New River Valley residents and governments about those routes.

Once past Narrows, the interstate corridor would head one of three ways: either past Blacksburg and toward Roanoke and U.S. 220; through Floyd County on Virginia 8; or down Virginia 100 to U.S. 52.

Narrows officials, including Mayor Donald Richardson and three of the five other Town Council members, came to a "very qualified endorsement of the interstate passing through," according to Town Manager Rob Mercure.

Council and Planning Commission members set four conditions for their support of an I-73 corridor through Narrows. They include: that any interstate use the current corridor of U.S. 460; that the New River town be guaranteed an interchange with Virginia 61; that there would be minimal disruption of the lives of town residents and businesses along the U.S. 460 strip during construction; and that economic adjustment funds be pledged for displaced businesses.

The town's elected and appointed officials did not take a formal vote on the matter and also did not endorse a specific corridor for I-73 beyond Narrows, Mercure said.

Mercure said he will take the council's consensus to today's I-73 meeting in Blacksburg.

by CNB