THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 18, 1996 TAG: 9603180075
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Virginia's delay in widening U.S. 17 to match the four-lane expressway in North Carolina has been caused mostly by problems with the Federal Highway Administration, rather than foot-dragging, state road-builders contend.
Virginia still plans to begin improving at least a short stretch of U.S. 17 by 1998, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman said.
For nearly 20 years, North Carolina officials have urged Virginia to improve U.S. 17 to speed the flow of commuters who live in the Albemarle area and travel the road to work in Hampton Roads.
U.S. 17 - The Ocean Highway - is a four-lane road in northeastern North Carolina that bottlenecks to two lanes at the Virginia border.
On Friday, two Virginia state transportation officials said that $20 million plans are in place to widen U.S. 17 north of the state line but that the work recently was blocked by federal demands for a new environmental impact statement.
``We completed an environmental study several years ago and sent it to the Federal Highway Administration,'' said John McCambridge, a Virginia Transportation Department environmental officer in Suffolk.
``When we proposed to update the study, we were told we'd have to do it all over again,'' McCambridge said. ``We expect to finish the new environmental impact statement this summer.''
Revisions to the study were needed because of additional wetlands concerns along the 9.7 miles of U.S. 17 that would be widened between Virginia Route 104, or Dominion Boulevard, in Chesapeake and the existing four lanes at the North Carolina state line.
Federal highway officials are involved because much of the cost of improving U.S. 17 will be borne by the federal government, derived from gasoline taxes.
But the improvements are not likely to be completed anytime soon even if the new environmental impact study were to meet with everybody's approval in Washington.
``The 9.7-mile project is now divided up into four sections,'' said William Cannell, a Virginia Transportation Department spokesman.
``The first widening will involve only a 1.3-mile section north of the state line,'' Cannell said. ``That should start in 1998.''
Three other short sections will be completed, one at a time, Cannell said.
Work on U.S. 17 in Virginia has been further delayed by a shift in priorities to Virginia Route 168 in Chesapeake - the main road through Great Bridge to the Outer Banks.
Chesapeake officials three years ago sought and won permission from the Virginia Transportation Department to speed up the widening of Route 168 to the North Carolina border to ease traffic during vacation season on the Outer Banks. That schedule change had the effect of delaying work on U.S. 17, even though no firm plans have been made yet for the widening of Route 168 in Virginia. In North Carolina, the road is being widened from Barco to the state line, which will give motorists a four-lane route all the way from Virginia into the Outer Banks.
Last week, the advisory committee of the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission discussed plans for a private-sector campaign to get Virginia businesses involved in widening U.S. 17.
Ben Berry, an Elizabeth City banker who is chairman of the advisory committee, said that meetings soon will be held with Hampton Roads community leaders to coordinate interstate efforts to improve the highway.
A border-to-border interstate-type U.S. 17 across eastern North Carolina has been an aim of North Carolina politicians for decades.
Efforts to widen the highway began nearly 20 years ago when North Carolina Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, was a member of the Board of Transportation.
Basnight, now the president pro-tem of the Senate, has kept General Assembly road-building money funneling into U.S. 17, and much of the highway now is four lanes.
Basnight refocused the attention of Virginia legislators on U.S. 17 last year when he suggested that North Carolina would be more responsive to settling the Lake Gaston water dispute with Virginia Beach if work were accelerated on Virginia highways leading into the Albemarle area.
Virginia Beach has struggled for years to resolve interstate legal constraints that have delayed construction of a pipeline to bring water to the city from Lake Gaston in North Carolina. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
For years, North Carolina officials have urged Virginia to widen its
part of U.S. 17 to ease the flow of commuters northward into Hampton
Roads.
VP map
KEYWORDS: HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION by CNB