Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The agreement in the House of Representatives establishes the same route for I-73 as a compromise reached in the Senate earlier in the year between Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Lauch Faircloth, D-N.C.
The House compromise will ensure that its version of national highway system legislation will include a Roanoke Valley route for I-73, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said in a telephone interview Thursday. Failure of the two states to agree on a route knocked the Virginia portion of I-73 out of a national highway system bill during the last Congress, he said.
Goodlatte and Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and Reps. Richard Burr and Howard Coble, two North Carolina Republicans, have agreed that I-73 should enter Virginia at Bluefield and follow U.S. 460 to Blacksburg.
From there, it would follow the "smart" road, an experimental highway using intelligent vehicle technology, to Interstate 81. It then would follow Interstates 81 and 581 into the Roanoke Valley and generally would trace the route of existing U.S. 220 into North Carolina south of Martinsville.
In reaching a consensus on a Roanoke route for I-73, the Virginia congressmen had to overcome the objections of Burr, who represents the Winston-Salem area, Goodlatte said. North Carolina highway officials originally had planned for I-73 to enter their state along the route of existing I-77 and pass through Winston-Salem.
The Warner-Faircloth compromise - which was contained in national highway system legislation sponsored by Warner and passed by the Senate in late June - calls for two new interstate designations in Virginia. It specifies that I-73 will follow the Roanoke Valley route and that another interstate to be designated I-74 will follow I-77 through Southwest Virginia and cross the border into Winston-Salem.
A House subcommittee will not take up its version of national highway legislation, containing the I-73/74 compromise, until September. Roads included in the national highway system are eligible for 80 percent federal funding.
Goodlatte, who has worked on I-73 since shortly after he joined Congress in 1993, said the Roanoke Valley route is badly needed for economic development and safety. The route also is more cost-effective than the I-77 route, Goodlatte said, noting that U.S. 220 would have to be upgraded no matter what route is chosen and that I-77 would have to be upgraded if I-73 were routed along it.
"Interstate 73 holds the promise of drawing our communities closer together and reviving the vital manufacturing base in Martinsville and Franklin and Henry counties," Payne said.
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