ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
THE IDEA OF FELLING TREES and shaving slopes in a national recreation area went over with area campers and fishermen like a skunk at the prom. RICHMOND - State transportation officials, under pressure from environmental groups and the U.S. Forest Service, are backing off plans to build a four-lane road through the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.
Instead, the state will concentrate on improving the two-lane roads that already cut through the recreation area, an alternative less likely to affect wildlife and water quality in the national forest.
Members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board will formally vote today to abandon the four-lane expansion of U.S. 58, but members made clear during a work session Wednesday that the idea is dead.
"We will never get approval," said Transportation Secretary Robert Martinez, chairman of the board. "We can either try to bang our heads against the wall forever, or we can just acknowledge that now and work on a solution."
The proposal was part of a plan to make U.S. 58 a four-lane highway across all of Virginia's southern belly. The recreation area, part of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, was tough to avoid - it straddles more than 10 miles of the Virginia/Tennessee border, and stretches north to Marion and beyond.
But the idea of felling trees and shaving slopes in a national recreation area went over with area campers and fishermen like a skunk at the prom. Water quality and endangered species would take a beating, most figured.
Also, Bill Damon, supervisor of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, said the federal government would have to conduct a detailed environmental study of the plan. It would take three or four years, and the state couldn't build the road until it was done, he said.
Such studies are not uncommon, but state transportation officials say the message was clear: Find an alternative.
Even transportation officials from around the recreation area - where local governments hailed the U.S. 58 improvements as an economic development boon - were happy that the Mount Rogers area will be left in peace.
"I think it's the way to go, and I'm just delighted," said Joseph Rhea Jr., a board member from Damascus.
Wednesday's meeting was planned only as a briefing on the project. But board members decided to write a resolution scrapping the plan and vote on it today to get the controversial issue behind them.
"I think it will take a lot of turmoil out of people's stomachs," said Zeanious Newcomb, a board member from Fredericksburg.
Alternative plans are preliminary, but Martinez suggested improving existing U.S. 58 and making two-lane Virginia 16 through the recreation area safer. And other roads could be renamed U.S. 58 to provide the trans-commonwealth link that transportation officials are seeking.
Regardless, the state won't abandon its goal of improving roads in the region, only plans to slice into Mount Rogers.
"Certainly, some sort of alignment of 58 will still need to be looked at," Rhea said. "Some of it you can't even get a good tourism vehicle up and down."
Area residents who had fought the new road said the board seems to understand that environmental concerns outweigh all others in the national parkland.
"It's very responsible and very sensible," said Tom Davenport, chairman of the Mountain Heritage Alliance, a group that has opposed the plan. "The way the alternative was presented - as a safety improvement to the existing roads - I'm sure that can be done. There will still be questions, but I feel much better about that proposal."
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Map by staff.by CNB