ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611250010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
The state Department of Transportation has received a list of features that Virginia Tech wants included in the ``smart'' road - including 72 40-foot snow-making towers that would use 175,000 gallons of water an hour - that weren't included in the project's environmental impact statement.
Officials at Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation Research say the swift pace of developing intelligent transportation technology kept them from providing details sooner. Also, spokesman Ray Pethtel said, detailed planning didn't begin until after the state had approved the project in August.
But environmentalists say the environmental impact study should cover all of the road's features, no matter when they are chosen. They said they'll ask a U.S. district judge to require an addition to the original 1993 impact statement.
State highway officials said their original environmental impact statement, and its 1995 addendum, covered the concerns then known. The statement says that if the use of any equipment raises environmental concerns, it will be reviewed.
Paul Johnson, a VDOT environmental manager, said that typical legal statement was added to impact studies in part because the burgeoning intelligent-transportation field is developing too quickly to predict design and testing needs.
He said any new concerns - including worries the snow-makers would be too loud - will be looked at. They will be included in the project's final review before the state advertises for construction bids on the initial 2-mile test portion of the road this spring.
Regardless, Johnson said the original impact statement addressed the most environmentally invasive activity: the actual building of the road. These new issues raised by the environmentalists are comparatively insignificant, he said.
Tom Linzey, attorney for three New River Valley environmental groups who've tried to slow development of the smart road, isn't taking VDOT on its word.
The environmentalists' initial suit, rejected in October by a U.S. district judge, was appealed last month. The appeal is pending.
``It's just flat out nuts,'' Linzey said. ``To move ahead on something like this without telling anyone of the details is just outrageous. It's very clear in the law, when something comes along that has a significant impact on the environment, they have an obligation to supplement their impact statement.
``I'm sure they're saying they're looking at it. But in the two years, I've been involved with them, I've come to understand VDOT lies and will continue to lie,'' he said.
The smart road, a 6-mile link from southern Blacksburg to Interstate 81, will serve as a laboratory for new transportation technology. It also has been billed as a boon to Tech and the region's economy. Studies on the test bed could start by late fall 1998. Environmentalists have criticized the proposed road's impact on the rural Ellett Valley and challenge estimates on its economic impact.
The expected research and technology resources that Tech is requesting for the highway are extensive:
* A 115,000-gallon holding pond for the water needed by the snow machines.
* Turnaround areas, with a 104-foot diameter, at each end of the test bed.
* Five research trailers that require a flat surface, flat parking area and access road.
As part of the all-weather testing feature, 72 snow-makers, spaced 37 feet apart, will line a half-mile stretch of the 2-mile test bed. The 40-foot-tall machines - HKD Towers, used at ski resorts - will operate at 87 decibels. Pethtel said they were chosen for their energy efficiency and relative quiet. He said the snow-makers, from 150 feet, are about as loud as a running water hose.
According to Ricardo Burdisso, a Tech mechanical engineering professor who teaches an introductory course in acoustics, 87 decibels is very loud.
For comparison, a lawn mower operates at about 70 decibels. The noise on a factory floor is also in the 70-decibel range. By law, a noise level above 55 decibels isn't allowed in residential areas during the day and no more than 45 at night, Burdisso said.
But how an ear perceives a sound depends on its type. A tower snow-maker like the one Tech hopes to use emits a broad-band-type sound, as opposed to a pure-tone sound, like a buzzer. Broad-band sounds, Burdisso said, are ``a lot less annoying.''
LENGTH: Medium: 82 linesby CNB