THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504020036
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The Dare County Board of Commissioners will meet in late April or early May with members of the Chesapeake City Council to try to work out a way to eliminate the summer-long traffic jam for Outer Banks visitors on U.S. Highway 168 in Virginia.
Dare County Commission Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. said Saturday that officials from the Virginia city contacted the North Carolina county about a possible summit.
It is also anticipated that Currituck County officials will be involved in the discussions.
Owens said the meeting could be the beginning of a new dialogue on a number of economic issues, including the Lake Gaston pipeline, which would provide much-needed water to South Hampton Roads.
``We're excited that our communities will be working together,'' said Owens. ``The traffic situation on 168 is something that is of concern to all of us. We need a concerted effort to get the road widened.''
Chesapeake Mayor William E. Ward said Dare County officials have assisted the city in trying to get help from Virginia and federal authorities in improving Route 168.
Weekend traffic in the summer often is backed up all the way from Great Bridge in Chesapeake to the Dare County beaches, partly because, north of Barco and into Virginia, the road is only two lanes.
Owens said construction is slated to begin in April near Barco to widen the road to four lanes to the Virginia border. The road is four lanes from Barco south to the Outer Banks, and a headache in the past - a two-lane bridge across Currituck Sound to Kitty Hawk - will be eliminated this summer when a second two-lane span is opened.
``Dare County has always been supportive of the Lake Gaston pipeline,'' Owens said, although the state continues to wage a strong legal battle against letting Virginia Beach and Chesapeake draw water from the lake. ``Our own state senator, Marc Basnight, president pro tem, has been working closely with the State of Virginia on this. We don't have a water problem now, but eventually we will.''
Ward agreed, saying the meeting is likely to include a number of areas of common interest.
North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Dave Phillips ``has suggested a more regional concept,'' Owens said. ``Most of our people in Northeastern North Carolina do business in the Tidewater area. Folks in Perquimans and Chowan counties and in other areas shop in the Tidewater area. There are a lot of possibilities.''
Basnight, a Democrat from Manteo, praised the efforts made by Chesapeake and Northeastern North Carolina officials.
``We should not let the state line separate us,'' Basnight said. ``After all, we share the same water and the same geography. That line should not be the dominant factor in discussing roads, or water, or commerce.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map
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