DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997               TAG: 9703250261

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   61 lines

PORTSMOUTH PUSHES FOR PINNERS POINT TUNNEL PROPOSALS SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO DERAIL ROAD PLANS, OFFICIALS TELL VDOT.

Portsmouth and Norfolk officials want to push forward with plans to build the Pinners Point Interchange and Monday urged the Virginia Department of Transportation not to wait for an evaluation of two private proposals for a second Midtown Tunnel.

The proposed $119 million Pinners Point road and bridge would link the Western Freeway with the Midtown Tunnel and the Martin Luther King Freeway in Portsmouth.

Two unsolicited proposals from private partnerships fold Pinners Point into a comprehensive, but speculative, project including construction of a second Midtown Tunnel. Those proposals are now under review by VDOT staff.

At an annual allocation hearing Monday at VDOT's Suffolk District Office, officials from the two cities said they do not want the Pinners Point project derailed by the private proposals.

Portsmouth Mayor James W. Holley III said Pinners Point is the city's top road priority.

The 1.5-mile project will help alleviate traffic in Portsmouth's historic Port Norfolk neighborhood, provide easier port access for industrial truck traffic and connect the Midtown Tunnel to the growing suburban areas of Churchland, Western Branch and Suffolk.

Pinners Point is so important to Norfolk that the city made the unprecedented move of kicking in $2.5 million to build a road in another city. Norfolk planners say Pinners Point would provide better access to downtown Norfolk and would ease traffic congestion on Hampton Boulevard, which feeds the Midtown Tunnel.

Pinners Point has been in the works for years and should ``not be delayed by new opportunities,'' said Jeffrey K. Raliski, Norfolk's transportation services manager.

Following the hearing, VDOT officials said that while a review of the two Midtown Tunnel proposals is under way, work is proceeding on Pinners Point.

A financial study that examines toll pricing for the Pinners Point connector should be complete in about a month, said Leo H. Rutledge Jr., VDOT urban programs engineer. The final design of the six-lane divided roadway and bridge must then be approved by Portsmouth City Council and the Commonwealth Transportation Board. One home and no businesses would be displaced.

Right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation would take about two years before construction could begin.

Meanwhile, VDOT officials in Richmond are considering two proposals that incorporate Pinners Point and a new Midtown Tunnel. James W. Atwell, VDOT assistant commissioner for finance, said his staff will determine later this spring whether to proceed with either of these proposals.

Eastern Virginia Public-Private Facilities Partners wants to build a second Midtown Tunnel and the Pinners Point connector for $420.8 million.

For $509.3 million, Hampton Roads Infrastructure Development would build Pinners Point and a second Midtown Tunnel, extend the Martin Luther King Freeway to Interstate 264, install an electronic traffic monitoring system at the Midtown and Downtown tunnels, and study a potential West Ghent bypass. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: PINNERS POINT

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