ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
State highway planners have almost completed work on a detailed "smart" road application that they plan to submit to Montgomery County next month. That would restart a review that nearly halted the project three months ago.
Virginia Department of Transportation officials have been working all winter on a 92-question application adopted by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors in early December. The answers should be sent to Richmond for final review by top VDOT officials this week, said Dan Brugh, the department's resident engineer for the Christiansburg region.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed by smart road opponents continues to wend its way through the federal court system. Most recently, state Transportation Secretary Robert Martinez has filed a motion to have himself removed as a defendant, while federal highway officials have answered the suit and denied making mistakes in the environmental planning process.
VDOT must file the application when it again notifies Montgomery County of its intent to condemn 140-plus acres of private land in a county conservation zone.
The state must secure approval from county supervisors before it can seek to condemn the land for the road.
In November, after a public hearing that saw overwhelming opposition to the project, supervisors voted 4-3 to block the condemnation, a dramatic turnaround for the board after it supported the smart road for six years.
A week later, after intense lobbying from Virginia Tech and the local business community, the supervisors rescinded that decision and set up the application process, which will come into play this spring.
The conservation zone is on the eastern end of the planned six-mile link between northern Blacksburg and a point on Interstate 81 some 2.5 miles north of the U.S. 11/460 exit in Christiansburg.
Building the smart road is key to Virginia Tech's hopes to launch itself into the top ranks of research into automated highway systems. The so-called "hands-off, feet-off" technology is the subject of a federally financed research push by academia, government and the auto and defense industries. Tech's Center for Transportation Research plays a small role in that national research.
But, at an Engineers' Week breakfast Wednesday, Tech President Paul Torgersen said the smart road is the university's major effort to draw new jobs to the region. He likened its potential to that of the Tech Corporate Research Center, an office park that has blossomed over the past decade. Torgersen predicted that the smart road would have an even greater economic impact.
Road opponents have questioned Tech's economic predictions, and have characterized them as just the latest ploy to sell an environmental and financial boondoggle to wary local governments and residents. Opponents want Tech to focus its smart technology efforts on the U.S. 460 bypass connector, also known as Alternative 3A.
In November, a Blacksburg-based environmental group, the New River Valley Greens, sued state and federal highway officials in U.S. District Court to try to block further planning of the road. The suit, later joined by the national Sierra Club and the New River Valley Environmental Coalition, asked the court to order highway planners to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement. This would require another round of public comment and involvement in the road proposal.
Last month, Martinez asked the court to dismiss the suit against him. Early this month, the environmental groups filed a response, and a judge should rule on it this spring.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Transportation filed its response to the suit last week. The response argues that many of the issues raised in the suit - such as the allegation that planners gave inadequate consideration to alternatives to the road - were dealt with during the first environmental impact review in 1993.
But Sam Swindell, a Blacksburg lawyer representing the environmental groups, said one of the major points of the suit was to force the agencies to follow the law in their attempt last year to introduce a so-called "addendum" to the environmental impact statement. The addendum covered issues related to a 750-foot adjustment of the road's path and its environmental effects, including its impact on an endangered flower.
Swindell said there are clear precedents from the local federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court that would require public input on such an addendum. "That's really all we're asking for, that the law be obeyed," Swindell said. The case is on track for a judge's decision on a motion for summary judgment as early as August, he said.
Staff writer Elizabeth Obenshain contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 linesby CNB