ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, December 12, 1996            TAG: 9612120009
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO 

SEVER THE PARKWAY CONNECTION

MAKING PERMANENT a temporary road connection that has proven to be convenient seems only reasonable to those who travel the route daily. But when the connection is the Blue Ridge Parkway, more is at stake than traveling time for residents of a particular subdivision.

The parkway's purpose and character are at stake.

The parkway exists to be a scenic drive. As such, it cuts open 470 miles of a unique American landscape to the eyes of millions of visitors from around the world. The limited-access road is built to handle low-volume traffic that cruises along at a lower speed, allowing motorists to enjoy the views.

Some residents of a Rutrough Road subdivision, as well as Vinton, Garden City and Mount Pleasant, have found that a temporary link between Rutrough and the parkway is a handy shortcut to get from Point A to Point B. You can't blame them for wanting to make it permanent.

Sorry, but no. If the National Park Service were to bow to their wishes, it would undermine the road's reason for existence, and open the agency to pressures for similarly convenient access from every county along the parkway's length in Virginia and North Carolina.

Fortunately, the park service seems to have no intention of doing this.

To anyone in need of reminding, the agency points out that it allowed the exit onto Rutrough only on the condition that it would be temporary. The link was built in 1994 to give parkway visitors a means of reaching Virginia's Explore Park until the connecting Roanoke River Parkway could be completed.

The river parkway is scheduled to open next year. A deal is a deal. The Rutrough link will have to be cut.

Residents who want to keep it also have raised a public-safety issue: The link cuts emergency-vehicle response times significantly. But some kind of emergency-only route via the new river parkway probably can be worked out.

Motorists who have used the parkway simply as a short-cut will be put out. But, inconvenient though this may be for some, communities all along the parkway, including Roanoke County, will benefit in the long run if the park service keeps to its mission to maintain the road as a limited-access scenic drive.

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