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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995                   TAG: 9509110080
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE ROUTE FOR I-73 CLEARS PANEL

Interstate 73's proposed route through the Roanoke Valley is another step closer to official federal status.

The U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a National Highway System bill Friday that includes an I-73 route through Roanoke.

Earlier this year, the full Senate passed its version of a National Highway System bill that includes a Roanoke route for I-73. Previous transportation legislation requires that Congress pass a bill - providing funding for 160,000 miles of the nation's most strategic highways - before Oct. 1.

"This is another important development in the effort to bring I-73 through Roanoke," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said of the committee action.

The proposed I-73 would run from the middle of Michigan to Charleston, S.C.

The state has picked an I-73 route in Virginia that would follow U.S. 460 from Bluefield to Blacksburg, then take the route of the proposed "smart" road connecting to I-81.

It then would follow I-81 to Roanoke, then take I-581 and U.S. 220 to Martinsville and the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina.

by CNB