Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408150069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Long
It will go from a West Virginia-American Water Co. line on the north side of East River Mountain through the Interstate 77 tunnel system into Bland County on the Virginia side.
Bland County Administrator Gary Cutlip and Martin Jansons, an engineer with Thompson & Litton who is project manager, say the venture may be a first. At least, they know of no waterline built through an interstate highway tunnel anywhere else.
For that reason, the cost of putting the line through the tunnel is uncertain. ``We've checked around and can't find where anything like that's been done before. So we don't have any experience to draw on,'' Jansons said.
The estimated cost of going through the tunnel and along U.S. 52 to Rocky Gap is $1.9 million, and the money already has been obtained.
The Farmers Home Administration will provide $1.2 million, $700,000 will come from a Community Development Block Grant, and the private nonprofit Virginia Water Project is spending $7,200 for connections along the line.
The line will be secured on supports through the tunnel's intake-exhaust portals above the highway along one side of the portals containing giant fans used when necessary to ventilate the twin tunnels.
One of the rare times they were used was about a year ago, when a northbound camper caught fire inside one of the tunnels. Nobody was hurt, but the fire scorched the north end of the tunnel before it was put out.
Although the tunnels cross the Virginia-West Virginia border, they are maintained entirely by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Cutlip said no vehicle fire had occurred in the tunnels before, and the one last year could have helped prompt the department to allow the waterline, which also will provide fire protection inside the tunnels.
``That may not be the only reason that VDOT is interested in giving us a permit to come through the tunnel, but I think it's a big part of it,'' he said. ``They've asked for us to put connections along the way.''
Bristol District Engineer Jack Corley said he thought the department would have issued the necessary permit for the line, but the fire certainly was a consideration.
The waterline will have a protective liner to keep water from coming through the tunnel roof in case of a leak or rupture.
Rocky Gap now is served by two private systems manned by volunteers. Users periodically get notices from the state Health Department to boil water before drinking, when surface water contaminates the springs that supply the systems.
``It's just getting harder and harder to operate a small system,'' Jansons said, because of increasingly stringent water quality standards like those in the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The line will provide water for Rocky Gap Elementary and High schools, which now use a private well. It will pick up Dry Fork and North Gap on the way and veer north near its end to include Doe Run Estates. In all, it will serve about 200 customers.
But all that is just a start. Plans are in the works to extend the line farther into Bland County through two more projects.
The goal is to break ground on the first phase by next summer, which assumes getting the Health Department's approval by March and releasing specifications to bidders. That part should be complete about a year after construction starts.
Jansons said the second phase may start by the time the first is completed, ``or possibly sooner, depending on how funding works out. But we've got some hoops to jump through.''
The second $1.6 million phase would extend the line along U.S. 52 to catch both Virginia rest areas on Interstate 77, which occasionally must shut down because of water problems.
``The quality of the water over there is not good,'' Corley said. ``During periods of heavy usage, we have some difficulties.'' Signs posted by the foot-pedal-operated water fountains at the rest areas tell people on strict sodium-intake diets not to drink the water.
The third phase, estimated to cost $1.9 million, would include a 20-acre Bland County industrial park near Bastian. It would provide water to the county's major industries, such as GIV Corp. and Tultex Corp., as well as the Kegley Manor nursing home.
The Bastian area, where 500 people work, is the county's major employment center. With a secure water supply, it might attract new industry.
``We're looking at buying for the whole I-77 corridor,'' Jansons said, perhaps 100,000 gallons a day - but still only about 3 percent of the West Virginia company's daily 3-million-gallon capacity.
The tunnel project came about after the Farmers Home Administration approved $1 million in grants and loans to provide a clean water system for Rocky Gap, Cutlip said. But the cost of drilling a new well would not have left enough to build a treatment plant. A recently completed water project in Bland, the county seat in the southern part of the county, cost more than $1 million just for its water source.
That was when the county started talking to VDOT and the West Virginia water company about bringing a line into Virginia. It was discovered that the company had enough water capacity to serve Bland County even beyond Rocky Gap, and the next two phases of the project were planned.
The tunnel project was not easy to coordinate, involving not only Bland County but two states and their transportation officials; a private water company; funding agencies at federal, state and private levels; and the Federal Highway Administration, which had to approve it.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, helped in getting that federal permission. ``It took a little while to do that, but we finally got it done,'' he said.
Actually, considering all the players involved, Cutlip and Jansons are surprised at how well everything has come together on the project so far. ``Gary and I sometimes just shake our heads,'' Jansons said.
While driving a reporter along the route of the proposed line recently, Jansons and Cutlip noted that Bland County industries would have a secure water supply for the first time but still would have to rely on their own independent sewer treatment packages.
``You know, that gives me an idea, Gary,'' Jansons said. ``There's a sewer line on the other side of the mountain as well.''
``That might be the next project,'' Cutlip said.
by CNB