Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501280035
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Here are some ideas being kicked around, and where they stand:
Build an interstate highway to connect the Roanoke Valley with the growth centers in the Carolinas.
The Roanoke Valley has Interstate 81, a straight shot into the industrial Northeast. But some business leaders contend what the region really needs to do is to thrust itself more squarely into North Carolina's economic orbit - with an interstate from Roanoke to the Greensboro/Winston-Salem metro area. That would make the Roanoke Valley more attractive to companies that want to serve the fast-growing North Carolina market.
Just ask Bill Brammer, executive vice president at Bassett Furniture in Henry County. Trucks to his furniture plant are timed to arrive at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., "just in time" to deliver materials to the assembly line and avoid storage costs.
But winding U.S. 220 invites too many accidents that slow tractor-trailers, he says. When trucks are delayed by accidents, the assembly line has been known to shut down for the day for lack of work. Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, says he knows of factories in Southside that refuse to route their trucks along U.S. 220 because it's considered such a hazard. An interstate would be safer and faster, he believes, and put the region in the running for companies it now can't attract.
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, is perhaps the biggest legislative champion of the proposed new interstate. "I think it's a build it and they will stay, a build it and they will come kind of thing," he says. "For companies looking anytime in the next 10 to 15 years to open up a new distribution plant in the East Coast, we'd have to be in the top four or five. With 81, with 64 an hour away, with 77 an hour away, with 73 on the drawing board, it's a natural."
Status: Congress has authorized a new highway - the so-called I-73 - from Detroit to South Carolina. Virginia wants to route I-73 along U.S. 220 from Roanoke to Winston-Salem, and the House of Representatives authorized $5 million last year to study such a segment - although the appropriation died before the Senate could act. Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, say they'll push for it in the new Congress.
But there's a question as to whether the federal and state governments will put up the money to build an entirely new highway. They might just upgrade U.S. 220 by straightening the curves. That might make the trip to Carolina safer and shorter, but might not satisfy those who want the prestige of a full-fledge interstate.
Build an interstate highway to connect the Roanoke Valley with the ports at Hampton Roads.
George Mason University geographer Jim Fonseca has argued that Virginia wasted its money to upgrade U.S. 58 along the state's southern border. What the state needs, he says, is a new highway connecting Roanoke, Lynchburg, Richmond and Norfolk - to give the two big metro areas in Western Virginia more direct access to the ports. The original plans for Interstate 64 in the 1960s would have done just that, but U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd Sr. intervened to get a Charlottesville route.
Status: There's a plan in Congress to build a coast-to-coast interstate called the TransAmerica Corridor. Goodlatte won House approval for $8 million to study routing the road through Roanoke and Lynchburg. That funding also died without Senate approval, but he'll try again.
Build an "intermodal" facility where trucks could be loaded directly onto trains.
Norfolk Southern had a small one once in Roanoke, but abandoned it because it didn't generate enough business. Roanoke business leaders have pushed ever since to get another one.
Status: Norfolk Southern says it studies the idea every two years, but so far hasn't determined an intermodal facility would be profitable here. However, railroad executives say they figure it eventually will be.
Build an "inland port."
Virginia already operates one in Front Royal; exports headed for the ports can be cleared through customs and loaded directly onto trains in the Shenandoah Valley, then whisked to Hampton Roads where they don't have to wait in line. The state funded an inland port in Front Royal as a way to divert Midwestern export traffic from Baltimore to Hampton Roads; now some Western Virginia business leaders are suggesting the state put one in Western Virginia as a way to attract container traffic that might otherwise be headed toward Charleston, S.C.
Status: In December, the Virginia Port Authority announced it has hired a consultant to look into the idea.
Set up a "foreign free trade zone."
Raleigh, N.C., already has one. Richmond wants one. In a "free trade zone," companies that import materials that will later be exported in finished goods get tax breaks.
Status: The World Trade Alliance of the Blue Ridge, a group of business and political leaders whose region stretches from Augusta County to Wythe County, is researching the idea. Generally, it's believed an intermodal facility must come before the federal government will designate an area as a free trade zone.
Build more warehouses.
"Second to labor, the most critical need in the valley is the absence of public warehouses," Elizabeth Arden's logistics director Roy Drilon says. Many distribution companies hit seasonal peaks; they don't want to spend the money for warehouses they only fill a few weeks or months each year - but when those peak times hit, they sure could use the space.
Status: Nothing visible under way.
by CNB