Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160178
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
George Garrett, assistant secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, said his state has picked a route for I-73 that would bring it into North Carolina from Virginia along existing I-77.
His state already has a plan to four-lane U.S. 220 from the Virginia line to Greensboro, and routing I-73 along the 220 corridor would not be in the best interest of taxpayers, Garrett said.
Garrett was one of several witnesses appearing before the House subcommittee on surface transportation as the debate over the location in Virginia of I-73 moved to the halls of Congress.
The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., has been holding hearings on legislation establishing a National Highway System, of which I-73 - a road that would link Detroit with Charleston, S.C. - would be a part.
Rahall's subcommittee heard two panels of witnesses, each favoring a different route.
One panel - whose members represented five of the six states through which the road will pass, as well as the Bluefield, W.Va.-based group that originally conceived the road - favors an I-77 route.
The other panel, which included members of the Virginia congressional delegation, spoke for a route that would roughly follow the U.S. 460 and U.S. 220 corridors from Bluefield to Roanoke to Martinsville and into North Carolina. It would incorporate Virginia Tech's experimental "smart road'' between Blacksburg and the Roanoke Valley.
Rahall raised questions about the proposed 460/220 route and once asked the Virginia congressmen if just rebuilding U.S. 220 from Interstate 81 to Interstate 85 in Greensboro, N.C., wouldn't serve Virginia's transportation needs as well as routing I-73 through the Roanoke Valley.
Rahall welcomed the I-73/74 Corridor Association, which is based in Bluefield, with praise for the effort and determination ''its members had put into promoting I-73. It is becoming a reality ... It is going to be a reality,'' Rahall said of the road.
Nelson Walker, the association's executive director, suggested that if Virginia wants I-73 to run through the Roanoke Valley, it should be prepared to pay the whole additional cost of deviating from the most direct route, which would be I-77. A Virginia Depatment of Transportation study of possible road corridors through the state estimates it would cost nearly $460 million more to bring the road through Roanoke than along I-77.
As chairman of the first panel, Walker gave the subcommittee a bundle of petitions from people in the Blacksburg area who oppose the 460/220 route and favor an I-77 route.
Rahall said he had received a letter from the National Committee for the New River, expressing that group's opposition to the 460/220 route, which would cross the river.
Perry Davis of Wytheville joined Walker in questioning the economy of routing the road along the 460/220 corridor. He said that route would require a road 40 miles longer than an I-77 route and would serve less traffic, according to the state study. Davis is a board member of the Great Lakes to Florida Highway Association, which backs an I-77 route.
However, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said using the 460/220 route for I-73 would save money the state would have to spend on improving 460 and 220 because those roads, too, have been designated as part of a National Highway System. Goodlatte added that the Roanoke Valley, New River Valley and Martinsville, the largest population centers in Southwest Virginia, would be served by the 460/220 route.
Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., joined Goodlatte in his assessment that the 460/220 route for the road would provide the most economic benefit to Southwest Virginia. Warner said a 460/220 route would help bring passengers to the Roanoke Regional Airport, a facility in which the federal government had invested money.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Robert Martinez revealed that a new in-depth study by the state of the economic impacts of the proposed I-73 supports the conclusion of a study released last week, showing the 460/220 route would provide the most economic benefit.
An economic study whose results were released last week has been criticized by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, among others, because it looked only at how I-73 would affect creation of jobs along highway interchanges. The economic study was part of a ranking of 12 variations of seven basic routes the state is studying for I-73.
In a letter to Virginia Highway Commissioner Ray Pethtel dated Sunday, Boucher questioned the economic study and asked that the Commonwealth Transportation Board delay a decision on an I-73 route until a better study can be done and until governments in Montgomery and Giles counties have a chance to comment on the 460/220 route. There is strong citizen opposition to the 460/220 route in those counties, Boucher said.
Martinez said a economic study conducted by the Virginia Transportation Research Council in Charlottesville using computer models indicates the 460/220 route would generate $37 million more a year in gross income from long-term economic development along the roads, compared to roughly $5 million yearly along either I-77 route.
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