ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EAGLE ROCK
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
The latest proposal to build a new bridge over the James River has worried some Botetourt County officials and supervisors who felt too much of the burden was on their shoulders.
Monday night, the two architects of the proposal - state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo and Del. Lacey Putney - turned up at a gathering of local residents to talk about their motives in brokering the deal. They also provided some new details.
"We were determined not to leave Richmond without doing something to keep the door open to keep a bridge at that spot in Eagle Rock," Putney told about 250 residents who packed the cafeteria of Eagle Rock Elementary School. "It was not our intention in any way to dump something [in the supervisors'] laps."
"We thought we had established a win-win situation," Trumbo said. "We hope we have not created too much of a burden for the Board of Supervisors."
The bridge - which is in a state of disrepair - is not the only way into Eagle Rock, but its removal will put busy U.S. 220 four miles farther away.
The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to take bids on the removal of the bridge in April, with work expected to begin in early July. Removal should cost less than $500,000. Replacing the bridge could cost at least $2 million - too much, VDOT says, for a bridge serving a community of about 300.
Those plans would change if the deal worked out last month with Robert Martinez , the state's secretary of transportation, is accepted by the county's supervisors.
The state has asked Botetourt County to put up $1.25 million over four years as its share of building a new Eagle Rock bridge and commit to finishing it if the state runs out of revenue-sharing funds for it.
The bridge would become part of the secondary road system, so the state and county could share the cost.
The secretary also wanted Botetourt to add repairs to a two-lane Virginia 727 bridge over the James River in Iron Gate to its six-year secondary road plan as part of the deal. That proposal had raised the ire of county officials.
The Iron Gate bridge is in Botetourt County, but 90 percent of the people who use it are from Alleghany County, County Administrator Gerald Burgess said last month.
Martinez has now backed off his proposal requiring the county to add the Iron Gate bridge to its secondary road plan. Eagle Rock residents have rallied around the bridge's cause, and the parking lot of Eagle Rock Elementary was overflowing 15 minutes before Monday's meeting started.
The crowd, in general, seemed to support the deal Trumbo and Putney put together. The state has asked the supervisors to vote by March 21.
Several supervisors said they were ready to back the plan.
"I don't think any of us are real thrilled, but it's this or nothing, Supervisor Bonnie Mayo said after Monday's meeting. She said Chairman Bill Loope had indicated he's also ready to support the plan.
Robert McRae, pastor of Galatia Presbyterian Church and the meeting's moderator, summed up the situation: "We can really believe, we can have hope we're going to get a new bridge. But for progress to be made, we have to suffer some inconvenience."
The bridge will be closed immediately if supervisors accept the proposal. The new bridge would take about three years to build.
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