Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 29, 1990 TAG: 9006290821
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The proposed shortcut from Interstate 81 to Blacksburg will cost $117 million, plus an undetermined amount to turn the road into an experimental highway for "smart road" technology.
Supporters of both roads are looking to the federal government to foot most of the bill - by having them added to a much-sought-after list of special projects tacked onto the highway spending package Congress passes only once every five years.
Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, who's seeking money for the river parkway, and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, who's leading the push for the much-heralded "direct link" to Blacksburg, insist the two projects aren't in competition for federal funds.
The two roads may be close geographically, Boucher says, but they serve two very different purposes. The river parkway is intended to promote tourism; the shortcut to Blacksburg is billed as a way to field-test computerized highway technologies that regulate traffic flow. "I don't see any competition whatsover," Boucher says.
But one congressional aide familiar with the requests says that's not so.
"It's wholly unrealistic," said the aide, who is allowed by the officeholder's rules to be quoted, but only if not identified.
It's hard enough for the congressional delegation from a medium-sized state such as Virginia to get one so-called "demonstration project" added to the highway bill, the aide said. "I just can't see so much highway funding going to two demonstration projects of the size that are for one region."
Besides, the staffer points out, the river parkway and the direct link to Blacksburg aren't the only road projects in Virginia that are candidates for special federal funding.
Rep. Herb Bateman, R-Newport News, is pushing for the federal government to help pay for a new bridge over the York River - at an estimated cost of $65 million to $80 million.
A Bateman spokesman also says he doesn't think the three Virginia projects are in competition.
In the last federal highway bill, Congress put up 80 percent of the money for the demonstration projects and left the states to come up with the rest. Taking that ratio into account - plus what's already been appropriated for some of the projects - Boucher is seeking $95 million, Olin almost $60 million, Bateman anywhere from $52 million to $64 million.
For perspective, in the last federal highway bill, Virginia won two demonstration projects - $12 million for the river parkway and $2 million for design work on the bridge over the York River.
By that standard, even the $27 million Olin says he'll settle for right now - enough to buy land along the entire 9-mile parkway route from Vinton to Hardy Ford and build the 2\ -mile leg to the proposed Explore living-history state park - seems high.
The congressional staffer said Olin and Boucher - and Bateman, too, for that matter - are making such big requests "just as a formality" to show the folks back home they're looking out for local interests. The key decisions, the staffer said, likely will come in the Senate, where senators must vote with larger, statewide interests in mind.
If either John Warner or Charles Robb asked for that much money for all three projects, "people would laugh you out of committee," the staffer said. "It's just not done."
For now, though, Warner and Robb aren't inclined to say anything that could cause trouble. Spokesmen for both declined comment on the grounds that spending bills originate in the House and that it's way too soon to start talking about the details of a bill that doesn't have to be passed until the summer or fall of 1991.
Olin says he's confident of winning additional funding for the river parkway because the project has been funded once before and because Warner, a Republican, has been a strong parkway backer. That gives the parkway bipartisan support.
The congressional aide cautioned against over-optimism. "The Roanoke River Parkway - that is not a done deal," the staffer said. However, the aide said that because the river parkway had been included in the last highway bill, the scenic drive stands a better chance of being funded again in 1991 than the direct link to Blacksburg.
"I've conveyed that to the people promoting the Roanoke-Blacksburg road," the aide said, adding that they didn't seem to believe it.
The direct link's best chance for federal funding, the aide said, would be to tap another category within the highway bill - such as research.
Boucher agrees that the proposal to make the road a testing ground for "smart road" technology is its best selling point and gives supporters several options to pursue. Boucher notes that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner has been pushing "smart road" research, so he's hopeful there'll be some federal money available somewhere.
If either road wins federal funding, there's still the matter of getting the state to put up its share.
State governments traditionally have opposed federal demonstration projects, protesting that they drain money from other road needs.
Last time, river parkway supporters had trouble getting the state to put up just $3 million, because state highway officials complained it didn't fit into their budget. Under pressure from Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, transportation commissioner Ray Pethtel finally discovered some previously unspent funds in an obscure agency account. But three years later, the state match is still $800,000 short. Supporters are hoping Apco, Norfolk Southern or other landowners along the route will donate land worth that much to make up the difference.
Vinton insurance executive Steve Musselwhite, who represents the Roanoke and New River valleys on the state transportation board, says that in the future, the state match for the river parkway - possibly an additional $15 million - likely will have to come out of the region's regular road budget.
"It'll be tough, no question about it," Musselwhite says, "but I remain confident this project will get done."
Meanwhile, supporters of the direct link to Blacksburg envision a different source of state funds. Virginians vote this November on a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to sell pledge bonds for road construction. There's already talk that, if it passes, state legislators will propose a statewide bond package for specific road projects, with the direct link to Blacksburg one of them.
by CNB