Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 4, 1994 TAG: 9409060007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
They made that abundantly clear last week after the Mount Rogers Planning District Commission endorsed the route proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, along Virginia 100 through Giles and Pulaski counties to pick up U.S. 52 through Carroll County.
``It hits a little teeny corner of Carroll County,'' Wythe County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom DuPuis said. ``Actually, the route we were proposing goes a little more into Carroll County than this.''
Interstate 77 goes through Bland, Wythe and Carroll counties, joining Interstate 81 for nine miles in Wythe.
Tom Cassell, Wythe County's representative to the Planning District Commission, had voted for the endorsement of Boucher's proposed route. He noted that the state Transportation Board had chosen a route that would take Interstate 73 through Virginia along U.S. 460 through Giles, Montgomery and Roanoke counties on south into North Carolina.
``It appeared to us that we had only two choices in our planning district, and that was to leave it alone or to select the one that might have the best chance,'' Cassell said. ``This looked to be the best of what few alternatives were left.''
Cassell suggested that the Interstate 77 corridor had already been eliminated by the Transportation Board's decision, and only Boucher's alternative stood a chance of replacing it.
Rural Retreat Town Council had already passed a resolution supporting the planning district's route endorsement before the joint meeting of all three Wythe County governing bodies last week. ``Quite frankly, I didn't realize we were doing anything that was not in concert with the other governing bodies,'' Mayor Doug Humphrey said.
Dr. Carl Stark, president of the Great Lakes to Florida Highway Association, told the three governing bodies that simple economics would make the route go along existing Interstate 77. It would cost millions of extra dollars to do what the Transportation Board proposed, he said, and Boucher's alternative would only provide a slightly longer parallel route through the state that would take little traffic off Interstate 77.
``If engineers made the decision, it'll come right down Interstate 77. If the politicians make it, then Lord only knows where it will go,'' Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe said. He proposed a joint resolution from the joint meeting endorsing Interstate 77.
The motion passed, with Rural Retreat officials abstaining. They will have to wait for their regular meeting to undo their earlier support of the Planning Commission alternative.
Supervisor Jack Crosswell said traffic will increase on Interstate 77 in any case, requiring that it be improved as it might be if Interstate 73 was routed over it.
``If we're going to get that traffic, which we are, we need the paved roads to accommodate it. What we're going to get is a traffic jam,'' Crosswell said.
Tom Taylor, executive director of the Planning Commission, said the organization had also endorsed $2 million for preliminary engineering on upgrading the existing six-lane segment of joint Interstate 77 and 81 between Wytheville and Fort Chiswell. ``For what it's worth, that is in the works also.''
But Crosswell and the other Wythe representatives said it made no sense for the Planning Commission to endorse a route that only touched on part of its geographic area, in a corner of Carroll County.
``All of this came out of the air. It was like getting hit with a baseball bat that you don't see,'' Crosswell said.
by CNB