Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401210003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Short
It is one of several routes being pushed by different localities in Southwest Virginia and, in a way, is a rematch between two groups of them.
It has been three decades since Wythe and Bland counties won out over Pulaski and Giles counties to route Interstate 77 through Big Walker Mountain instead of over Virginia 100.
Wythe County officials are working to have I-73 routed along the same path as I-77, which also links up with Interstate 81 for a joint six-lane road of about nine miles in Wythe County before diverging.
But a factor which may work against the Wythe County routing is those twin tunnels through Big Walker Mountain, which would be difficult to widen to avoid a traffic bottleneck if vehicles from yet another interstate were fed into them.
PEP is pushing the Pulaski County route as the shortest and most cost-effective.
Hiawatha Nicely, a PEP member and a Pulaski Magnox executive, expressed concern at last week'sJan13 PEP membership meeting, that the New Century Council - representing localities both in the Roanoke and New River Valley areas - might endorse a Roanoke route. That could hurt cooperation efforts, he said.
Ed Barnes, another PEP member and president of New River Community College, said he saw the New Century Council more as a planning group than one that would make a recommendation on such matters.
by CNB