Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"Why do you need that much room for an interchange?" mumbled Rencsok, who describes herself as "ambiguous" about the six-mile road that would link Blacksburg with Interstate 81 and cut a few minutes off the trip between Roanoke and Virginia Tech.
Rencsok was one of many affected property owners and concerned residents who attended an informational meeting Thursday evening to examine detailed maps of the smart road and sketches of the approximately 1,900-foot bridge that will span Ellett Valley. There was no formal presentation at the meeting.
The final public hearing on the road's design will be held Oct. 18, when comments and concerns will be gathered for the Commonwealth Transportation Board. The board will address the smart road at its December or January meeting, said Dan Brugh, Virginia Department of Transportation resident engineer in Christiansburg.
The first public comment session on the plans was in December 1994. Since then, the major change involves lengthening the Ellett Valley bridge.
Originally, the bridge was supposed to span about 1,200 feet with large embankments at each end. Plans now call for the bridge to span 1,920 feet with small embankments. As a result, the state's original plan to take 700 feet of land next to the bridge has been decreased to about 250 feet, Brugh said.
Two families - one in a mobile home, the other in a house - no longer have to relocate. The news brought only a shrug from Ritchie Epperly, who lives in the mobile home.
"I'd rather move," said Epperly, who added that he was concerned his home would be too close to the bridge.
The look of the bridge, which would span the lush, rural landscape of Ellett Valley, has been a subject of debate. General design proposals for the bridge, displayed Thursday at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn with the road maps, were whittled down in recent weeks from seven to three: a painted steel beam, solid concrete or a concrete box-like structure.
Seven types of piers, which hold up the bridge, also were displayed. The views were mixed.
"It looks nice from the picture, real nice," said Epperly, as he examined an aerial shot of the valley with a computer-generated image of the bridge.
His comments were in sharp contrast to those of Rosemary Sawdon, Sierra Club vice president and Blacksburg resident.
"It's ugly, regardless of how you build it," Sawdon said.
Opinions on the bridge mirror the usually contentious debate that surrounds the smart road.
Epperly said the area needs the road to relieve traffic congestion, but Sawdon believes it was forced "down everyone's throat."
"Two miles to nowhere, to me just doesn't make a lot of sense," Sawdon added.
State and federal funds have been secured for the first two miles of the road, which Virginia Tech and private industries would use to test new technologies aimed at improving highway safety and speeding travel. But no money has been raised to build the rest of the road.
If the Commonwealth Transportation Board approves the design plan, detailed construction blueprints for the two-mile stretch would be drawn, purchase of property would begin, and the project would go out for construction bids by late next year.
While most of the meeting consisted of individual conversations among transportation officials and the public, events become more heated when Citizens Advisory Committee member Justin Askins asked for the public's attention. In a booming voice, he said the opposition's viewpoint had not been represented at the meeting and that the environmental implications of the project had not been fully examined.
"It's a fraudulent meeting," he shouted to onlookers.
In contrast, fellow advisory committee member Jeffrey Douglas said the project is an economic lift for Western Virginia that most people favor.
While written and oral comments were taken at the meeting, further input will be gathered at the Oct. 18 meeting, also at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn from 4 to 8 p.m. Public comment can be taken up to 10 days after the hearing.
by CNB