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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 6, 1994                   TAG: 9412060063
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

`SMART ROAD' AND CONNECTOR PLANS TO BE PRESENTED

The Virginia Department of Transportation will unveil its plans for the "smart road" and Alternate 3A, aka the bypass-to-bypass connector, at a public information meeting Wednesday from 3 until 8 p.m. in the Holiday Inn.

While the plans are still deemed preliminary, "they do contain the first detailed information we've been able to share about these projects," according to a letter mailed to the media from VDOT spokeswoman Laura Bullock.

Alternate 3A will connect the U.S. 460 bypass around Christiansburg with the 460 bypass around Blacksburg; the smart road is a six-mile highway that is to cross Ellett Valley from Blacksburg to I-81.

VDOT, which also will host a meeting tonight at 6 at the Holiday Inn for the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and the Christiansburg and Blacksburg town councils, will display maps of the two roads which show precise routes and include revised plans for interchanges in Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

Bullock said the idea behind the meetings is "let's get the people involved before we get too far." Wednesday will be "the first time property owners can see what the designers are thinking."

Dan Brugh, VDOT's Christiansburg resident engineer, said the public will see a simplified version of the interchange design at the southern tip of Blacksburg, where Alternate 3A, the smart road, U.S. 460 and South Main Street come together. He would not comment further on the interchange makeup before the meetings.

Montgomery County has told VDOT that it wants an Alternate 3A interchange on I-81 that allows easy access to the county's planned Falling Branch Industrial Park, which was expanded last week with the county's purchase of an additional 24 acres of land . Bullock said that wish has been accommodated.

The public also will receive additional information on the smart road, which will be used as an experimental test bed for "smart car" research. The state has committed to building a third of the road.

But Brugh said much of the meeting will focus on Alternate 3A, the plans for which were delivered to his office last week.

by CNB