ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.
New River Valley environmentalists have appealed a federal judge's decision this month that denied their bid to slow development of the "smart" road.
The New River Valley Greens, the Sierra Club and the New River Valley Environmental Coalition filed an appeal with the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, the groups' attorney, Sam Swindell, said.
Swindell said it could be three to four months before arguments are heard.
The appeal, Swindell said, is based in part on U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser's refusal to admit the environmentalists' expert affidavits on the sufficiency of the environmental impact statement on the route the road would take through the Ellett Valley.
The group also claims Kiser applied the wrong standard in determining whether the Virginia Department of Transportation should have conducted a supplemental environmental impact study to cover information found after the release of the final impact statement in May 1993.
On Oct. 2, Kiser dismissed one of the environmentalists' three claims and found in the government's favor on the other two.
In his 22-page decision, Kiser offered a mild criticism of VDOT planners, saying they "certainly could have been more thorough in their analysis of the project's environmental impacts."
But the environmentalists, Kiser ruled, "failed to demonstrate that [the planners' actions] were `arbitrary and capricious.'''
The decision was one of the last potential obstacles to construction of the road, a six-mile link from southern Blacksburg to Interstate 81 that will serve as a laboratory for new transportation technology. It also has been billed as a boon to Virginia Tech and the region's economy.
Ray Pethtel, Tech's main spokesman on the project, said Wednesday he expects to break ground on the project by midsummer.
Pethtel, associate director of Tech's Center for Transportation, said the appeal was expected.
"But I believe Judge Kiser made a good ruling, and I believe the appeals court will uphold it," he said.
Pethtel said advertising for construction bids on the first stage of the highway - a two-mile test bed - should begin by April. Studies on that test portion could begin by late fall 1998, he said.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB