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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995                   TAG: 9502220067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

I-73 OPPONENTS QUESTION ROUTE

For the New River Valley, the Interstate 73 debate remains very much alive. Absent still, however, are solid answers on a host of highway questions, some opponents say.

Tuesday night, the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County sponsored a public meeting with a panel discussion of the ongoing controversy.

Nelson Walker, executive director of the I-73 Corridor Association, a Bluefield, W.Va., group, reiterated the association's opposition to the Commonwealth Transportation Board's proposal to run the interstate over the Virginia Tech-backed ``smart'' road, Interstates 81 and 581 and U.S. 220 to the North Carolina border.

Instead, ``I submit to you the original plan ... should be as straight a line as possible and use existing corridors,'' such as Interstate 77 through Wytheville, he said.

But state Secretary of Transportation Robert Martinez - who is also chairman of the transportation board - defended the proposal. .

Studies have shown that Virginia would experience the greatest economic development boon if the highway were to run along a path, including Roanoke and Blacksburg, of greater existing development, population and infrastructure, Martinez said. ``That's what we're talking about here.''

Also on the panel were Blacksburg Councilman Michael Chandler; Montgomery County Board of Supervisors Chairman Larry Linkous; and Deborah Dull, representing the Informed Citizens Action Network, an activist group opposing the road's running through Montgomery.

Chandler, whose council does not want the road to run through Blacksburg, took an aggressive tone Tuesday night, citing a long list of questions regarding the construction schedule, costs, environmental damage and outright need for I-73, ultimately asking, ``What will we forgo when we buy I-73?''

Dull, who worked with the Federal Highway Administration as a lawyer during the Bush administration when the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 was written, thinks Virginia's proposed path for I-73 runs roughshod over that legislation's intent of cutting pork and increasing efficiency. She said the only reason the state wants I-73 to go where it has proposed is ``to be eligible for special projects - [demonstration] money.''

She questioned whether money ever would be available to build the highway to interstate standards, and suggested that the state should look at alternatives - such as railways - to serve its transportation needs. ``I just think that there's a reality gap here,'' she said.

Martinez defended that point, citing instances in other parts of the state where alternative transportation possibilities are being boosted. Regardless, ``I-73 is fully consistent with the flexibility that is proposed under the National Highway System,'' he said.

by CNB