
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995                   TAG: 9507050031
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

FALL HEARINGS ANTICIPATED FOR MAJOR ROAD PROJECTS

The New River Valley's two biggest highway projects - the U.S. 460 bypass connector and the "smart" highway - are on track for public hearings on their designs by the early fall.

The hearing for the smart road should take place by the middle of September, said Dan Brugh, resident highway engineer at the Transportation Department's Christiansburg office. It has been pushed back from a tentative date this month.

A separate public hearing for the U.S. 460 bypass connector between Christiansburg and Blacksburg should be later in September or in early October, Brugh said. It has been moved up from early 1996.

Transportation planners put out early designs for both roads at public meetings in Blacksburg seven months ago. A citizens' panel has been working since February to make recommendations on the smart road's design. The next step will be gathering public comment this fall before sending the designs to the state Transportation Board for approval. Once that's obtained, the projects can be advertised for construction.

The board approved the roads' actual routes earlier: in June 1990 for the connector and in February 1992 for the smart road.

For now, a two-mile portion of the smart road is to be built first, starting in 1997. Construction of the 5.3-mile bypass connector is to begin in 1999 and take two years, though that schedule may be moved up slightly, Brugh said.

Both roads got a boost recently when the Federal Highway Administration approved new Interstate 81 interchanges for them, Brugh said. The smart road interchange is to be built near Shawsville; the bypass connector's link will come beside Falling Branch Elementary School.

Aside from the I-81 interchanges, the projects include major new high-speed interchanges near Montgomery Regional Hospital, behind the Marketplace shopping center at Peppers Ferry Road and at the site of the current intersection of North Franklin Street and the Christiansburg bypass.

The smart road is a proposed six-mile highway between southern Blacksburg and I-81. The project, to be built in phases over as many as 15 years, would serve as a prototype for new computer-assisted technology designed to improve traffic safety.

The project includes a major bridge across Wilson Creek in the Ellett Valley. Planners should have bridge concepts ready by the time of the design hearing, Brugh said.

Roanoke business leaders conceived of the road to create a closer link to Virginia Tech. Its Tech backers also see it as a potential research and economic boon to the university and the New River Valley; critics consider it an environmental and fiscal boondoggle.

The bypass connector, formerly known as Alternative 3A, is designed to speed travel between Blacksburg and Christiansburg and avoid the congestion created by commercial growth around the intersection of U.S. 460 and Peppers Ferry Road.

by CNB