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

DATE: FRIDAY, October 14, 1994                   TAG: 9410140070
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                  LENGTH: Short

`SMART ROAD' FORUM TODAY AT VA. TECH

Ray Pethtel, Virginia Tech's spokesman for the "smart road," will speak today about the high-tech highway at a Round Table forum at 4 p.m. in the Thomas Conner House.

The "smart road," proposed to run from Blacksburg to Interstate 81 at Ironto, received a major boost last week with the announcement that Virginia Tech is part of a winning $200 million consortium that will develop the highways of the future. The state has pledged to build the first two miles of the road at a cost of over $10 million as its contribution to the consortium effort.

The public is invited to the forum, sponsored by Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy, to hear Pethtel talk about "The Smart Road: Smart Idea or Dumb?" Pethtel is the former state commissioner of transportation who is now a transportation fellow at Virginia Tech.

Charles Goodsell, professor at the center, will serve as moderator for the program to be held in the Conner House at 104 Draper Road.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB