THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Hampton Roads can be a bustling hub of commerce, cargo and tourism or a backwater. Transport by sea and rail is adequate, but the region has been ill-served by underfunded and outdated roads that radiate from the hub.
North to Richmond, the essential spoke is under perpetual construction to keep up with increasing traffic; it's too important to neglect. An expanded Chesapeake Bridge-Tunnel looks forward to 21st century needs, but Route 13 is inadequate for a growing Eastern Shore.
The roads that lead South - Route 168 and Route 17 - are an embarrassment to the region and the state. Travelers must poke along on dangerous and overcrowded roads until they reach the North Carolina border where they are suddenly reminded what modern infrastructure looks like.
Chesapeake badly wants state help in upgrading Route 168 in particular, but the Allen administration proposes little outright aid. Instead, it has favored public or private toll roads. Yet there's little evidence the private sector has any great desire to enter the toll-road business.
Since the time of the Romans, roadbuilding has been a quintessential public responsibility. The experiment in Northern Virginia to build a private toll road to Dulles airport looks, in its early months, like a resounding and unremunerative flop. It's unlikely to encourage entrepreneurs to enter the game.
The essential connection to the West leads to Raleigh and beyond via Route 58 and I-85. A new merchant association, The Norfolk Federation of Business Districts, has embraced a Norfolk-Raleigh expressway. The suggested route would begin at the ocean and incorporate the proposed Southeastern Expressway that is envisioned as a link between the area around Oceana NAS and the 64 Beltway.
Chesapeake has opposed the route, largely as a matter of priorities. It wants to see Route 168 fixed first. Virginia Beach has long been a booster of an alternative to crowded Route 44. It has taken to calling it a Greenway, no doubt to disarm environmental critics. By any name, such a road is inevitable. The only question is whether it will be built sooner, as part of a plan to make growth orderly and travel convenient, or later, after decades of inconvenience when acquiring the needed land will cost much more.
But the merchants also call for new construction to cut directly from the Hampton Roads beltway across eastern North Carolina to Raleigh. There's little justification for that route. Far better to adopt the parsimonious solution and upgrade Route 58. It already connects our region to the two vital arteries of 1-95 and I-85. What's needed is a road of higher quality. Route 58 now requires motorists to slow at too many rural, convenience-store intersections.
To make Hampton Roads a crossroads rather than a cul-de-sac, improvements to roads, bridges and tunnels are needed. Dwight Farmer, transportation director for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, says our needs total $9 billion while projected funding available is only $3.5 billion.
If projects like the Southeastern Greenway and upgrades of routes 13, 17, 168 and 58 don't compete vigorously for limited funds, our region risks getting bypassed by the economic-development we need. Hampton Roads legislators of both parties must make common cause in pursuit of essential infrastructure. by CNB