THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Say you're heading south down Norfolk's Hampton Boulevard. You pass through the Midtown Tunnel into Portsmouth and want to head west. The best route is the Western Freeway, but to get to it you must creep more than a mile through residential areas, making numerous turns and stopping at lights. Going the reverse direction, from the freeway to the tunnel, is just as hard.
What's badly needed is a highway between the two, to be called the Pinners Point Connector. It would lighten traffic in historic Portsmouth neighborhoods, provide easier truck access to the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and tie the Midtown Tunnel to the growing suburban areas of Churchland, Western Branch and Suffolk.
In a move unique in Virginia history, two cities have each committed money to build a highway that runs through only one of the cities.
Norfolk has committed $500,000 a year for five years, and Portsmouth $1 million a year for the same period, toward construction of the connector in Portsmouth.
Staff writer Toni Whitt reported, ``As a result of this unprecedented regional cooperation, state officials said, the long-sought Pinners Point Connector has made it onto Virginia's proposed six-year construction plans.''
Norfolk's contribution is so small as to be almost symbolic: It's 4 percent of the $12 million in urban-allocation funds the city gets annually from the state. Norfolk's total $2.5 million commitment for the connector is a tiny part of its projected $119 million cost.
Still, it was an eye-opener when one city, recognizing the regional need for a connector, contributed highway funds for another city.
It also was a milestone on the area's road toward regional cooperation, as Hampton Roads attempts to be more than a collection of cities.
Norfolk wasn't being altruistic: It was being wise. ``Access is critical to Norfolk,'' said Bob Fischbach, government-programs director for the city. ``That's how tourists get here. That's how people get to the med school. That's how people will get here for the MacArthur Center.''
Most of the rest of the cost of the connector would come from $23 million in regional funds committed by the Hampton Roads Mayors and Chairs, $32 million from the state and $55 million to be raised by tolls over as few as seven years.
Although Hampton Roads is hardly sprinting toward regionalism, it is moving in that direction, and none too soon. by CNB