THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060472
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORTON LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
The completion of two new thoroughfares in southwestern Virginia will significantly shorten travel time and defuse frustration for motorists in the coalfields.
Anyone who routinely drives U.S. 58-Alternate, the main east-west route between Abingdon and Big Stone Gap, knows traffic backs up at Norton and Coeburn. In those towns, the usual four lanes narrow to two, creating bumper-to-bumper lines of cars and coal trucks that slowly snake through busy downtowns.
Coeburn also has a busy railroad crossing that can leave motorists at a standstill while hundreds of coal cars rumble by.
On Friday, the Virginia Department of Transportation is scheduled to open a $30 million, 1.8-mile bypass of downtown Norton. The road will save travelers from five to 25 minutes depending on how much downtown traffic is clogging the main route, officials estimate.
And on Sept. 12, the department plans to open the first phase of its Coeburn bypass, a 4.2-mile, $35 million parallel route for U.S. 58-Alternate. It will save 10 minutes or more, depending on traffic and trains that can now be avoided.
``We've been waiting 20 years to get this bypass,'' said Norton Mayor B. Robert Raines. ``It's going to make a whole lot of happy people, I can tell you that, especially those who travel it both ways each day.''
The Norton bypass was designed in the 1970s but money to build it dried up. The road was revived during the Bush administration with Appalachian Regional Commission funding, Raines said. by CNB