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

DATE: MONDAY, May 22, 1995                   TAG: 9505230051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PARKWAY GROUP FAVORS EXISTING ROADBED PLAN

The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway will come out in favor of keeping construction to U.S. 221 within the existing roadbed, newly appointed executive director Richard Burrow says.

Burrow said he will submit the group's first written opinion on the project to the Virginia Department of Transportation at one of the two public hearings this week.

"It became pretty obvious, pretty quickly, that improving 221 along the existing roadbed is the way to best protect the Blue Ridge Parkway," he said.

Burrow said VDOT's preferred corridor, a new highway south of the creek that would begin at the end of Brambleton Avenue and eventually connect with the base of Bent Mountain, would be "very visible" from the overlooks above Back Creek.

"You only catch two slight glimpses of the current roadway from the parkway," he said.

The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway is a nonprofit group that works to protect the resources and the beauty of the national linear park.

by CNB