THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411180042
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The case for the 21-mile Southeastern Expressway spanning Chesapeake and Virginia Beach is strong. But even those who aren't persuaded ought to avoid acting in haste to pull the plug on a project 10 years in the making.
Traffic in South Hampton Roads is a mess, as anyone who braves the highways knows. Continuing growth can only multiply the bottlenecks and aggravation.
With military downsizing a reality, Hampton Roads must look to tourism, economic development and international commerce to boost prosperity. Swift, smooth transportation is vital to all three.
Today, long commutes, annoying choke points and hostility to development make businesses think twice about locating here and tourists think twice about returning. For the first time in many years, jobs aren't keeping pace with demand. Today, 20,000 area youths turn 18 annually but only 9,000 new jobs are created. For the past several years, net migration has been out - not in. Economic development is imperative.
Foes of the Southeastern Expressway argue that there is little commuting now between Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, but that's hardly the point. If such a road existed, there would be more. And the road is not being planned merely to get people from Oceana to Greenbrier Mall but to facilitate traffic flows into, across and through South Hampton Roads and to relieve pressure on existing arteries that are at capacity.
Some stigmatize the road as another instance of government pork and a raid on the long-suffering taxpayer. But if the road is needed - and it is - then it isn't pork. And if, as has been proposed, it would be financed with bonds paid off by tolls, the taxpayer wouldn't be on the hook. Indeed, this kind of financing of government projects by those who use them is in keeping with the privatizing of public projects favored by the conservative administration of Gov. George Allen.
Federal agencies which once voiced environmental reservations about the expressway have now agreed it is needed. These include the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps of Engineers.
In short, after a decade of debate, the Southeastern Expressway is poised to become a reality. South Hampton Roads ought logically to be rejoicing that it is about to take an important step toward making the region more competitive.
Instead, there's a chance the project could be scuttled at the 11th hour under pressure from talk-radio naysayers, anti-development zealots and the nostalgic, who think they can turn back the clock to a better past but would more likely create a worse future.
A threatened, and unnecessary, vote against the Southeastern Expressway in Chesapeake next week could persuade the Virginia Department of Transportation to walk away from the project. If VDOT concludes local backing is weak, it could decide to go build needed roads where officials want rather than scorn them.
The merits of the expressway aside, a vote now would be unwise because it would be premature. A final recommendation on where to site the road won't come until January. Final reports on the timing of construction and financing will follow that.
Surely, any irrevocable decision ought to be made only after all the facts are available. Rather than rush to take a vote that Hampton Roads could live to regret, Chesapeake ought to let the process continue in an orderly manner.
Of course, those anxious to kill the project may be in a hurry because they fear deliberation. Given enough time for cooler heads to consider all the implications, the expressway should begin to look better and better to more and more. by CNB