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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 18, 1995                   TAG: 9502200049
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

I-73 PLANNED TO USE I-81, I-581

State highway officials have been told to plan a route for proposed Interstate 73 that would bring it through the Roanoke Valley, generally along Interstates 81 and 581, avoiding a controversial Bent Mountain crossing.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board unanimously passed a resolution Thursday that ``refined'' its preferred corridor for I-73 through Virginia to include I-81 and I-581.

I-73 would run from Detroit to Charleston, S.C.

Last March, Virginia proposed a corridor for the road that runs generally from Bluefield along U.S. 460 to Blacksburg, incorporates the planned ``smart'' road to I-81, then follows U.S. 220 to the North Carolina line. Thursday's board action specifically adds I-81 and I-581 through the Roanoke Valley to the preferred corridor.

The Transportation Board acted in response to requests from Roanoke, Salem and Roanoke County, according to Lorinda Lionberger, the representative on the board for the Virginia Department of Transportation's Salem District. The local governments had made the requests at the urging of the Roanoke Valley Business Council, which represents the 50 largest businesses in the valley.

The Business Council said that using existing roads for I-73 makes sense and would reduce citizen opposition to the new road. Bent Mountain residents organized to oppose the road after learning that a Department of Transportation planning map showed it bisecting their community.

Lionberger said the board discussed incorporating I-81 and I-581 into the corridor during a January workshop after the Transportation Department's planning staff raised it as an option.

``In further defining the I-73 corridor, we've simply made it a bit more specific,'' Virginia Secretary of Transportation Robert Martinez said.

Martinez suggested that the route using I-81 and I-581 makes sense because the state plans to widen I-81 in Southwest Virginia and to add a third lane to U.S. 220 from the end of I-581 at Elm Avenue to Virginia 419 in Roanoke.

A highway corridor is a wide stretch of land used in planning. Martinez said the state should not pick a specific route for the road without ``extensive'' chances for the public to have its say. He noted that planning for a specific route has not begun and no money is available yet to build the road.

Martinez said he hoped the refined I-73 route will help economic development in the Roanoke Valley and provide better connections with Roanoke Regional Airport.

Better highway-airport connections has been an interest of U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing highway funding. Efforts were made in the last Congress and are planned for the current Congress to include funding for I-73 in Virginia in a National Highway System bill. The bill would provide 80 percent federal funding for the road.

A failure by Virginia and North Carolina to agree on where I-73 should cross the states' common border kept funding for I-73 in Virginia out of legislation last year. Chuck Hansen, a spokesman for Martinez, said Virginia officials are confident they can reach an agreement with North Carolina on the route.

by CNB