THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410050006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
It's make or break time for a highway project to reduce congestion on Battlefield Boulevard.
Anyone who has ever traveled the road on a weekend knows what a traffic nightmare it is. Battlefield Boulevard, or Route 168, carries three times the traffic it was designed to handle. The result - a bottleneck that can add an extra hour of travel time for local residents and visitors.
It's also a safety hazard. Route 168 is the primary evacuation route for some 200,000 tourists and 39,000 residents from the Outer Banks., The next time we have a big storm, they might as well flee on foot.
Fortunately, something is being done about it. Environmental review is under way for a project that would reduce congestion and give Chesapeake residents their road back. The hard part is finding the money to pay for it. We've made some headway. Last November, we asked Congressman Norman Sisisky for help getting the federal government to pitch in. He was able to include $5 million for Battlefield Boulevard in the three-year highway bill passed by the House of Representatives in May.
The future of that funding is now in the hands of the U.S. Senate, which seems to be against it. We need to change the senators' minds. Quickly. The Senate went back to work on Sept. 12, and the senators could take up the highway bill at any time.
The city recently put up a sign encouraging out-of-state tourists to contact their senators. It must be doing some good, because senators have been calling to find out what people are so upset about.
The traditional Memorial Day through Labor Day traffic nightmare is behind us for now, but our traffic problems will not disappear. We can't give up the fight. We need to make sure that the Senate accepts the funding in the House bill. And we need the state to make this a top priority.
We can all pitch in. Let the Senate and the General Assembly know how important this project is to you. We need all the help we can get.
WILLIAM E. WARD, mayor
Chesapeake, Sept. 29, 1994 by CNB