ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
By next month, the Virginia Department of Transportation aims to provide the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors with what it wants: answers.
VDOT is putting together written responses to 92 of the supervisors' questions about the proposed "smart" highway. The move will allow the Transportation Department another chance to seek the condemnation of 140 acres of private land in an agricultural and forestal district for the controversial road.
The supervisors asked for information on topics that range from environmental impact to economic development and traffic forecasts in November. That was when the board first rejected VDOT's condemnation request, then rescinded its vote. Members said they would reconsider the matter when they had more details about the project.
Dan Brugh, resident engineer for VDOT in Christiansburg, said that information should be ready sometime in February. VDOT now is focusing on economic development figures and new traffic projections, he said.
The Board of Supervisors' vote reignited the debate about the smart road, which opponents deem an inflated, unnecessary project that will damage the environment.
Supporters, meanwhile, say the project will bring notoriety, research and economic development to the New River Valley. Several groups have reaffirmed their support of the road in recent weeks including the Christiansburg-Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, which passed a resolution last week in favor of the road.
"It's an issue before the business community, it was an issue that needed to be addressed by the chamber," said Executive Director Kathy Mantz.
The economic impact, in addition to the research benefits of the proposed link between Blacksburg and Roanoke, have been major aspects of public debate about the road. The first 1.7 miles of the road would be a test bed for intelligent transportation systems research.
Ray Pethtel, Virginia Tech's transportation fellow and smart road point man, made a presentation Wednesday night to the smart road advisory committee about just that. The committee was formed by VDOT to gain citizen input into the road's design.
Pethtel, also the Center for Transportation Research's associate director, focused mainly on the research aspect of development, including possible partnerships with local and out-of-state industries to develop products.
Already, the research center has accumulated $3.5 million in research funding directly related to the smart road. Pethtel has estimated the smart road would result in $300 million in industry spin-offs.
A major goal of the transportation research is to develop a fully automated driving system. That means taking "your foot off the gas" and "your hands off the wheel," Pethtel said, essentially making the driver a monitor. About 90 percent of auto accidents are caused by human error, he added, making an automated system important in reducing fatalities.
"We can reduce those 44,000 deaths down to a minimum," said Pethtel, who added congestion on the roadways also would be reduced with such a system.
The center, Tech's hub for the study of intelligent transportation systems, also is working on actual products for the smart highway, including an emergency system that would provide an automatic alert to law enforcement if an accident occurred.
"The importance of the smart road to Virginia Tech, to transportation research, is a magnitude far beyond cost and anything we can manage beyond our wildest dreams," Pethtel told the group.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB