DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 1997                 TAG: 9707080299
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   66 lines

3RD TIME MAY WORK OUT FOR LONG-RESISTED EXPRESS ROAD

The third time could be the charm for the Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt - a long-debated road linking the southern sections of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.

The highway is expected to receive the blessing of the Chesapeake City Council today after being voted down twice in the past two years.

But this time is different. An agreement between the two cities sets strict guidelines about the road, its future, and the limits of Chesapeake's role in its construction.

For example, the council's resolution says it supports the road but it limits that support to helping the road through its environmental review process.

And the council wants assurance that one of its pet projects, expansion of the Oak Grove Connector between I-464 and the Great Bridge Bypass to six lanes, is done at the same time and without cost to Chesapeake.

The resolution also states the city will not spend or allocate any money on the expressway until full funding is provided for a list of local road projects, including Virginia Route 168, U.S. Route 17, Kempsville Road, the replacement of the Gilmerton Bridge, and expansion and bridge replacements on Centerville Turnpike and Mount Pleasant Road.

The agreement notes that purchase of right of way for theexpressway will be the responsibility of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The agreement was made after several meetings between Chesapeake Mayor William E. Ward and Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.

The road project would link Virginia Beach's Route 44 with the eastern end of the proposed Oak Grove Connector.

In 1996, the Chesapeake City Council voted 5-3 to oppose the road, then known as the Southeastern Expressway.

Then-Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr., who was running for re-election, sponsored the motion, saying he did not want the city to be caught off-guard by the road, which he and other councilmen feared could be built through Chesapeake without the city's permission.

Mayor Ward supported Nance's motion despite assurances from state transportation officials that the proposed expressway route would not pass through Chesapeake's Greenbrier section.

In 1994, also at Nance's urging, the Chesapeake council voted 7-2 to oppose the road for the same reasons. Ward and Councilman John W. Butt cast the dissenting votes.

The Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt was believed dead after the 1994 vote. But after renaming and realigning the route, Virginia Beach sent it to the state's Commonwealth Transportation Board, which approved it.

The road's environmental impact statement and permit applications are scheduled to be filed soon.

``It will greatly enhance the opportunities for this project to be permitted if the city of Chesapeake reaffirms its partnership with Virginia Beach,'' Beach Mayor Oberndorf wrote to Ward on June 3.

The council also plans to endorse a proposed alignment today for U.S. Route 17 from Dominion Boulevard South. Ward said during a recent work session that state Secretary of Transportation Robert Martinez asked the council to make the recommendation as a way to create some movement among the federal agencies reviewing the process.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are currently at an impasse in their review of the road's alignment. City officials have said the groups are no longer talking regularly about the project. It is believed that having Chesapeake recommend an alignment will prompt the agencies to begin talking again.

The council plans to endorse the alternative that includes expanding the existing road along the Dismal Swamp Canal.

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