THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200271
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The Commonwealth Transportation Board has approved the location the city has selected for a new section of Virginia Route 168 that would serve as a bypass to South Battlefield Boulevard.
Thursday, the board approved Alignment 1, a $110 million project that will create a four-lane road running parallel to the existing section of South Battlefield Boulevard from the Great Bridge Bypass to the North Carolina border.
This was one of the last hurdles the project faced before construction can start. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental agencies must now approve the road's location via a final environmental review.
The design process and right-of-way acquisition will begin when the environmental review is completed. Public hearings will be held then on the design.
City officials say construction could begin in the summer of 2000. How the road will be funded, however, remains unresolved.
South Battlefield Boulevard is considered Chesapeake's most important road project. During summer months, when large numbers of Outer Banks-bound tourists use the two-lane road, it often becomes impassable. Residents who live along the road are often trapped by the traffic. And because the road is the main route to and from the Outer Banks, hurricane evacuation is made difficult.
Chesapeake city officials are preparing to ask private companies for proposals to build the road under Gov. George F. Allen's Private-Public Partnership Act, which allows private concerns to construct and operate state road projects. The requests for proposals are expected to be issued within the next three months.
KEYWORDS: HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION by CNB