DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220518

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   38 lines

ALLEN HELP TO TRANSPORT INDUSTRY TOUTED

Robert Martinez, the state secretary of transportation, trumpeted the work Gov. George Allen's administration has done for the transportation industry at a luncheon Wednesday at the Norfolk Yacht & Country Club celebrating National Transportation Week.

Martinez highlighted the Allen administration's drive to simplify and reduce the regulatory burden on truckers, railroads and others in the goods-moving business.

He cited the rules for moving hazardous cargos over and through the state's bridges and tunnels. Those rules were reduced to two pages from more than 180, he said.

``And to prove to Gov. Allen that government can be useful, (the Virginia Department of Transportation) had it laminated so it can be used on those hot days,'' said Martinez, fanning himself with the sheet.

Allen's reforms have also reduced the number of state agencies that truckers have to deal with from four to one, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Martinez said.

The Allen administration also succeeded last year in convincing the General Assembly to eliminate 43 archaic statutes and 33 statutes redundant with federal law affecting railroads, Martinez said.

He also called the state's recently passed Public/Private Transportation Act a success based on early results. The law allows private companies to propose, fund and build transportation infrastructure projects, if local municipalities have the need, but not the funds.

Chesapeake, for example, is working with private firms to build a bypass toll road for Route 168 to the North Carolina border.

And finally, he lauded the Hampton Roads' port. As shipping lines consolidate and build bigger ships, Hampton Roads, with its deep channels and close access to the sea, ``enjoys a very strong natural advantage,'' Martinez said.

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