ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
Virginia's chief transportation engineer said Wednesday that he agrees with Roanoke County's Board of Supervisors and the majority of Back Creek residents: Barring unforeseen problems, any improvements to U.S. 221 should be made north of the creek.
Jack Hodge's recommendation conflicts with the desire of the Virginia Department of Transportation's field office in Salem to study corridors both north and south of the creek. But the area's representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Lorinda Lionberger, has said she will side with Hodge.
Secretary of Transportation Robert Martinez said board members typically look for direction to the representative on the board where the project is located. And 90 percent of the time, the board's votes are unanimous.
The Transportation Board will vote on whether to study two corridors at its Dec. 21 meeting in Arlington.
"We did listen; we did hear. We're trying to do what the majority of the citizens who commented at the public hearing wanted us to do," Lionberger said.
At public hearings in May, nearly half of the people who shared their opinions said they wanted engineers to straighten out the precarious S-curves on the existing roadway, which is north of the creek. About 16.6 percent of the 830 who participated favored a new road south of Back Creek.
In September, the Board of Supervisors recommended that VDOT keep any improvements north of Back Creek and study no other corridors.
Still, two months later, the district office recommended study of two corridors.
District Administrator Fred Altizer said then that he favored moving forward with detailed plans of two corridors because he needed more in-depth information, such as how many homes the project would affect and the condition of the land.
VDOT ran into landslides when it was widening U.S. 221 at Bridlewood Road, which is near the proposed improvements.
For that reason, Lionberger said she will not promise that Corridor C, which runs south of the creek, will never be studied.
"Suppose we look at the north side of the creek and we have another $1 million slide. What would you have us do - build it anyway? That would be irresponsible," Lionberger said.
Hodge agreed that there could be problems with the north alignment, but he said engineers will stick to the existing roadway for now.
"Is it going to be difficult? Yes. During construction, will traffic be congested? Yes. But will it satisfy the people? Yes," Hodge said. "We will do additional preliminary engineering work. You can't rule it out just because there was a slide there."
If there are problems, VDOT will present those problems to county residents before looking at a route south of the creek.
"There's no point in doing the one no one wants. But if we can't do the one people want, we'll go back and look at the other," said Hodge, who lives in Richmond but has family in Roanoke County. "If we have to design two, it will cost approximately twice as much as doing one."
The additional cost of studying two corridors is a theme on which a citizen activist group, PAC 221, has been focusing since Altizer first suggested continuing with two corridors in August.
The group capped almost a year of lobbying by sending information packets to all Transportation Board members this month.
Lionberger said this is the most controversial project she has seen in the county in her two-year stint on the board. She has received more than four dozen calls since Monday.
Supervisors' Chairman Fuzzy Minnix, who represents part of Back Creek, said he is pleased that VDOT has opted for the existing roadway.
"They understand, just like I do, that they work for the citizens of Virginia. And any time you have an important decision to make, you have to remember that. I think they did," Minnix said.
Hodge said VDOT will design a four-lane road unlike most others. It will have no median and will blend into the rural environment.
Grant Clatterbuck, a founding member of PAC 221, said he is encouraged by Hodge's recommendation.
PAC 221 has shown that "community activism does work," Clatterbuck said. "If people had taken a passive, lackadaisical attitude, Corridor C would be a reality right now."
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