THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260370
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KURT KENT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 44 lines
Port Norfolk and West Norfolk residents would pay a toll to visit each others' neighborhoods under a proposal called unacceptable by Portsmouth Councilman Cameron C. Pitts.
The plan, which would help fund the Pinners Point connector, was announced at a Portsmouth City Council work session Tuesday.
M. Scott Hollis, state urban engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation, detailed funding plans for the interchange. The new roads and bridge would connect the Western Freeway with the Midtown Tunnel and Martin Luther King Freeway.
Plans call for tolls to repay $55 million drawn from the state's Toll Facilities Revolving Account. The project is expected to cost about $119 million overall.
Pitts termed the proposed tolls a ``betrayal'' of an earlier council vote that approved tolls for traffic using the new connector but not for existing traffic patterns along the route.
Councilman James C. Hawks also objected to restricting free traffic between parts of Portsmouth.
``That's a real problem,'' he said. ``I think we need to look at this and do some more work on it.''
Pitts said that under the proposal, he would have to pay a toll to go to church.
Residents wouldn't pay tolls just to go grocery shopping, he said. ``They'll be driving somewhere else to save the toll fee.''
Hollis said that although the toll would be new, residents of the two neighborhoods would benefit from having less through traffic clogging their streets. And all South Hampton Roads residents would benefit from being able to get where they're going more quickly, he said.
Exactly which routes will have tolls will be determined in negotiations between VDOT and the cities of Portsmouth and Norfolk, Hollis said. Both cities are helping to pay for the connector. Hollis said he hoped those negotiations would be completed by January.
A public hearing on location of toll booths, their design, and the amount of the tolls will be held in October. But that hearing will not deal with which routes will have tolls.
KEYWORDS: ROAD CONSTRUCTION TOLL ROAD WESTERN FREEWAY by CNB