THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, February 10, 1995              TAG: 9502100519
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: ACCOMAC                            LENGTH: Medium:   67 lines

SHORE'S SUPPORT IS SOUGHT FOR EXPRESSWAY HIGHWAY FROM NORFOLK TO RALEIGH WOULD BENEFIT ROUTE 13 CORRIDOR, ADVISERS TOLD.

Businessmen from Hampton Roads drove north on Route 13 Thursday to seek support on the Eastern Shore for a Norfolk-Raleigh expressway.

But what could they offer locals to back the multibillion-dollar project? Economic development, of course.

John Chappell, an investment banker from Chesapeake, presented the expressway plan to transportation advisers from Accomack and Northampton counties. Chappell had been chairman of the transportation committees for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce's ``Plan 2007.''

If an expressway to Raleigh were built, he said, truckers and travelers who wanted to avoid the ``Washington-Baltimore crawl'' would drive on the Eastern Shore.

``You would become the golden route,'' said Chappell. ``The Eastern Shore would become a growth area.''

The proposed Hampton Roads/Raleigh Expressway has a history of frustration. In 1993, Congress approved $1.7 billion to build it but never appropriated the money.

Congress did fund a $40 million plan to decide the highway's route, but all of that money went to North Carolina.

North Carolina mapped a road that wiggles primarily through Eastern North Carolina - far from the arrow-straight route to Raleigh that Chappell supports.

Hampton Roads doesn't have an an adequate evacuation route in case of a major hurricane, said Chappell. If built, the expressway could also serve as a defense highway, and a direct link to Raleigh from the Port of Hampton Roads.

And that, for expressway boosters, is the key issue.

``If America is going to compete in the world market, we are the port,'' said Chappell. New York harbor is silting up, and officials can't dredge it for fear of stirring up the toxins that have settled to the bottom, he said. The same thing is happening in Boston.

Hampton Roads has the deep water port, but not enough interstate-quality roads to make it attractive to shippers.

``Trucks don't make money waiting in traffic,'' he said, and the solution is the expressway.

The idea might not play well on the Eastern Shore, however.

Businessmen here would like to increase traffic on Route 13 a little, because more travelers mean more money for the stores and restaurants. But huge increases in traffic would be hard to handle, and could force construction of a limited-access bypass running along the seaside of the narrow peninsula.

A seaside bypass has shown up on transportation planning documents for years. Maryland and Delaware have already built, or are building, interstate-grade roads to connect with it.

Many local residents say a bypass would wipe out homes and farms. And businessmen who have invested in properties along Route 13 aren't crazy about any road that would funnel off most of their customers.

But Louis Eisenberg, a Norfolk restaurateur, said the Eastern Shore should support the Hampton Roads-Raleigh expressway. With a better economy, said Eisenberg, the Eastern Shore could determine its agenda, including limited development.

``This road alone will create more jobs than any single project could ever create,'' said Eisenberg. by CNB