Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 27, 1995 TAG: 9506270057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By voice vote late Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved legislation creating a National Highway System. A provision included by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., calls for the proposed Interstate 73 to pass through Roanoke.
The I-73 language that Warner included in the legislation passed intact, said Tracey Smith, a spokeswoman for the senator. Warner is chairman of the transportation and infrastructure subcommittee.
The House of Representatives has not drafted a highway system bill, but the committee in charge of that legislation should have one ready soon, said Tim Phillips, an aide to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke.
I-73 was planned to run from Detroit to Charleston, but its northern end point was changed to Grayling at the request of Michigan officials.
Warner's bill specifies that the Virginia portion of the highway follow the path of U.S. 460 from Bluefield to Blacksburg, the ``smart'' road to I-81, I-81 and I-581 to Roanoke, and U.S. 220 from Roanoke to North Carolina. State transportation officials approved that route last year.
The legislation contains a compromise worked out between North Carolina and Virginia on where the new interstate should cross the two states' border. It calls for an Interstate 74 to be designated in Virginia along the path of existing I-77. I-74 would cross the border in Carroll County, where North Carolina officials had first wanted I-73.
Another I-73/74 dual designation is intended to solve a disagreement between North Carolina and South Carolina over I-73's border crossing between those two states. South Carolina wanted the road to cross from Rockingham, N.C., to Bennettsville, S.C., but North Carolina wanted it to cross the border farther east, along U.S. 17 near the coast. Under the compromise, I-73 will take the western route and I-74 will cross to the east near Myrtle Beach.
Establishment of a National Highway System by Oct. 1 is called for in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. The proposed system would contain 159,000 miles of high-priority roads, three-fourths of them rural, that carry 40 percent of the nation's highway traffic and 75 percent of all commercial truck traffic.
After Oct. 1, the federal government will make $4 available to the states for each dollar they spend on construction and upkeep of the system. Virginia's share of that money will amount to about $150 million a year.
by CNB