THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411130075
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
It's almost certainly the most expensive project in Chesapeake or Virginia Beach. But exactly how expensive?
The cash register is still jingling.
The latest study by the Maguire Group, a consulting firm working on the project, says the expressway would cost between $354 and $507 million, depending on which of five routes is built. The latest Environmental Impact Statement by Maguire, released in October, gives cost estimates for five different routes.
But the Maguire Group says up front that these cost estimates do not include roughly another $100 million for High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, considered an integral part of the expressway. The HOV lanes are not included, officials say, because it's not certain when they would be built.
The cost estimates also do not include repairing environmental damage the highway would cause. The state only has a chance of getting federal permission to build the highway if it compensates for wetlands and natural areas harmed by the road.
Officials say environmental cost estimates are not included because they vary dramatically depending on which plan federal officials approve.
How about the highway's route? The most likely path is ``Alternative South.'' It is the only version that runs south of Stumpy Lake. The cost estimate is $354 million. This is the route that federal, state and local officials provisionally agreed on last year after months of meetings.
The state will hold public hearings on the highway on Monday in Virginia Beach at the Radisson Hotel near the Pavilion and Nov. 21 in Chesapeake at the Holiday Inn at Greenbrier. The hearings will be from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Federal environmental and highway officials will review comments from these hearings. The Commonwealth Transportation Board is expected to vote on the project next spring. Federal Highway officials probably will release a final report on the project in 1996, predicted Arthur Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
And construction? Within the next five years, Collins estimated. That's if federal, state and local officials approve it. by CNB