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

DATE: MONDAY, May 22, 1995                   TAG: 9505230048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ON THE ROAD TO A DEBATE

According to preliminary findings by VDOT, based on the 137 letters and comments filed at an April 27 informational session, 50 percent of the respondents favor keeping construction along the existing roadway.

Construction engineer Pete Sensabaugh said another 30 percent supported the engineers' preferred corridor, Option C, which would run south of the creek from the end of Brambleton Avenue and eventually connect with the base of Bent Mountain. The remaining 20 percent called for some combination of no-build or Option A, a new highway that would run north of the creek and existing road.

"Most of that last group wanted no-build. There seems to be very little support for Option A," Sensabaugh said.

Nonetheless, all the possibilities are still on the table, VDOT says, and residents who want their opinions to count should attend one of the two sessions from 4 to 8 p.m. at Cave Spring Junior High School on Wednesday and Back Creek Elementary School on Thursday.

No open microphone will be available at the hearings. Instead, citizens will be asked to submit written or tape-recorded comments.

In preparation for the hearings, 35 Back Creek residents showed up for a driving tour of the proposed routes, organized by PAC 221 last Thursday evening.

The caravan of minivans, pickup trucks and cars - 10 in all - pulled up to the first stop at 6:15, just before the S-curves, where Brambleton becomes Bent Mountain Road. There, a small, white sign has been placed advertising the public hearings.

Thirty-five people, including Back Creek Girl Scout Troop 177, PAC 221 supporters, no-build proponents and others, poured out of their vehicles at six sites to hear what tour leaders Grant Clatterbuck and Brent Riley had to say.

"Basically, the debate is coming down to two ideas," Riley told the group. "Should we go with the old road or build a new alignment down the middle? We're going to focus on those options."

Riley and the other members of activist group PAC 221 support constructing a new road to straighten out the S-curves and then widening or improving the existing route.

They took the Back Creek residents up to a gravel road just off Sunnycrest Road to show where the road would have to come to straighten the dangerous curves in front of the Harris property.

A tree with an orange ribbon tied around the trunk marked the spot. The tree-covered incline is steep and rocky, and Riley acknowledged the challenge the topography would pose.

"This is one of the negative aspects of the A1 idea. There will be a big slope and a big road cut, no ifs, ands or buts. You can see why, from an engineering perspective, the C-route would be the preferred one," he said. "But it can be done, and this route would require no bridges over the creek and would not be visible from the Blue Ridge Parkway."

VDOT engineers have conducted soil tests along the possible route to rule out the possibility of landslides that hampered previous efforts to widen Brambleton Avenue, Clatterbuck said.

The tour continued on to the Poage dairy farm on U.S. 221. Riley pointed to the green rolling slopes to the south of the road, where the C corridor would run.

"Here we're talking about our open space, our green space," he said. "And of course, we know the Poage farm is near and dear to many of our hearts."

Back Creek residents had rallied around the dairy farm early in the process, signing a petition that called for protecting the property and the home.

The last three sites were vista views, to show the C-corridor's route.

This week's public hearings are designed to narrow the choices in terms of road location. Design issues, including whether the road would be two lanes or four, will be determined later.

"What we do next depends on public input," Sensabaugh said. "There is a possibility we could go down to one choice or two. There could be more than that, but we are hoping to narrow the field some."