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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994                   TAG: 9408180095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGHWAY SYSTEM BILL CLEARS PANEL

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has approved a bill endorsing a National Highway System, which includes plans for Interstate 73, a proposed highway from Detroit to Charleston, S.C.

The Senate bill, however, doesn't resolve the question of where the controversial new road would be located as it passed through Virginia.

The National Highway System legislation approved by the committee last week says the most recent plan submitted by Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena should be the system picked by Congress. The bill doesn't specify any particular roads for inclusion in the system, which is a scheme of high-priority roads nationwide whose designation was called for by the 1991 federal highway bill.

When the Federal Highway Administration in Pena's department unveiled its plans for a system last December, an I-73 route in Virginia was not designated because the state hadn't let the administration know its preference for a route.

The legislation allows the secretary to add new routes or delete existing routes from the system at the request of individual states, provided that the total mileage of the system does not exceed 165,000 miles.

The Senate hasn't scheduled a floor vote on the bill.

The House approved its version of National Highway System legislation in May. That bill also did not specify a route for I-73 through Virginia. That's because of differences in proposed routes for the road in Virginia and surrounding states.

Virginia's Commonwealth Transportation Board endorsed an I-73 route this spring that would run generally along the path of U.S. 460 from Bluefield to Roanoke and then along U.S. 220 south to North Carolina. That route, though, has been opposed by citizens' groups and does not match up with proposals from West Virginia and North Carolina, which want I-73 to follow I-77 between their borders.

The House bill does provide $5 million for initial planning of a new Interstate 83, which would run along the 220 corridor between Roanoke and Greensboro, N.C. If I-73 is approved along the same route, they would share the same roadbed.

Under provisions of the federal highway bill, Congress will provide four-fifths of the funding for improvements or new construction on roads that are included in the National Highway System.

Congress has until Sept. 30, 1995, to complete work on the National Highway System legislation.

by CNB