THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512100064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
An environmental group that opposes construction of a high-tech highway claims Virginia Tech has misrepresented its role in an industry consortium and has fabricated projected research funding.
Virginia Tech denied the claims and said estimates of the ``smart'' road's economic impact do not depend solely on its participation in a national consortium developing a prototype of an automated highway system.
The forecasted economic benefit of a highway between Blacksburg and Interstate 81 was an issue last month when the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted to block the state's condemnation of land for the road.
The board later reversed that vote, but the issue will come up again. The Montgomery board will consider a list of questions for the state related to the condemnation during a meeting Monday.
The proposed 5.8-mile highway would be embedded with fiber optics and special sensors as a test bed for new technologies. The smart cars would be equipped with computers, video displays, sensors and satellite and radio communications. The car and the highway would ``talk'' to each other to avoid collisions, detect accidents and receive travel information.
Ray Pethtel, interim director of the university's Center for Transportation Research, said the National Automated Highway System Consortium is only one of many possible sources of research funding for the smart road.
Virginia Tech has commitments of $3.2 million in research related to the smart road and estimates that the research figure could grow to $100 million.
A local Sierra Club, its national parent, and the New River Valley Environmental Coalition have joined the New River Valley Greens in a federal lawsuit challenging the environmental planning for the smart highway.
In a statement this week, the Sierra Club New River Group charged that Virginia Tech ``has consistently and deliberately misrepresented its relationship to the consortium in an attempt to bolster its fabricated claims of projected research funding and spinoff economic development that depend on the construction of the smart highway.''
The Sierra Club cited a comment by consortium official Robert Meinert that Virginia Tech is not a major player in the group and has associate member status, which is available to anyone willing to sign a confidentiality statement in order to be put on a consortium mailing list.
``It's always the same implication,'' Sierra Club chapter chairwoman Shireen Parsons said. ``Never does it say, `We're on the mailing list, that's all we are.' ''
Celeste Speier, a public affairs official with the consortium, said Wednesday that while the group has no plans to fund Virginia's smart highway construction, it has looked at the university for some potential future studies.
``We're looking at it, and we haven't ruled anything out,'' she said.
Pethtel said he has consistently described Tech as an associate member in the consortium.
``If anybody is trying to mislead or put out misleading information, it's the opposition to this project,'' he said. by CNB