Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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Sunday, November 1, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
An alternative route for Interstate 73 proposed by the Henry County Board of Supervisors has both benefits and drawbacks, a final draft review released by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) on Friday shows.
Benefits include no commercial buildings needing to be demolished, fewer stream crossings and lesser environmental impact on wetlands. Drawbacks include more homes having to be torn down, more floodplain acreage being affected and higher costs, mostly due to more interchanges needing to be installed and having to add 1.8 miles to the highway, the review shows.
The review makes no recommendation as to whether the alternative route should be used. That will be up to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) to decide, said Heidi Underwood, VDOT’s Salem District public affairs manager.
Underwood said the CTB would have to undertake a more in-depth study if, after analyzing the final draft review, its members think the alternative route is worth pursuing. That decision would be made after comments from county officials and others interested in the project are incorporated into the draft review, she said.
The review is “just a factual evaluation” of the alternative route compared to the route that the CTB approved for the interstate in 2004, she said.
The approved route takes I-73 through Henry County east of Martinsville with six interchanges. The alternative route puts the highway closer to the city, and it has eight interchanges, a map included in the final draft review shows.
In late 2007, at the urging of local business people, the county supervisors asked the state to consider the alternative route to better serve the Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek and Martinsville industrial parks, as well as Martinsville Speedway. They also asked for a connector road to be built from the Patriot Centre to the interstate.
An earlier draft review found the alternative route would affect Fisher Farm Park in the county, which would violate federal law requiring that there be no “prudent and feasible alternatives” to crossing wildlife and waterfoul refuges, public park lands or historic sites in building a highway.
The final draft review reflects the alternative route’s move less than a half-mile west so Fisher Farm Park no longer is affected, Underwood said.
The review shows the alternative route would displace 80 homes. That is 38 more than the CTB’s approved route, yet 64 fewer than were displaced in the previous review, said Underwood. She attributed the reduction to the route’s slight shift west.
Two unnamed commercial structures that would be displaced by the CTB’s route no longer would be struck, the final draft reveals. Also, the number of stream crossings necessary would drop by five to 16, and wetland acreage affected would drop by almost 4.2 acres to about 2.2 acres.
But the amount of affected floodplain land would increase by 28.7 acres to slightly more than 120 acres, the draft shows.
The final draft shows the alternative route would increase the construction cost of I-73’s stretch between Roanoke and the North Carolina line by about $56 million to approximately $2.904 billion. That cost estimate is based on dollar values in 2007, the draft mentions.
If the CTB decides to pursue a more in-depth study of the alternative route, factors that would have to be investigated further, the draft shows, include:
• How water runoff from the Beaver Creek Reservoir and a smaller reservoir near Laurel Park would affect VDOT and public water systems if a hazardous chemical spill occurred.
• The impact on utilities, including a pump station near Laurel Park.
• Noise and air quality concerns at Laurel Park Middle School.
• The impact on archaeological and historic architectural resources, and
• The need for two new Norfolk Southern railroad crossing structures along the route, which would need permit and design approvals from the railroad.
Still, the report indicates that investigating those issues may not be enough to satisfy state and federal officials who grant permits.
Henry County Administrator Benny Summerlin said Friday he received the final draft review that day but has not had time to examine it thoroughly. He declined comment until after he studies it more.
VDOT hopes to collect comments from the county and business people who favor the alternative route by Nov. 13. Then the comments can be inserted into the final draft and passed along to the CTB for consideration as soon as the matter can be placed on the agenda, Underwood said.
She estimated that will be “probably within a few months.”
The start of construction on I-73 remains many months, if not years, away.
Virginians for Appropriate Roads, a Roanoke-based group of opponents of I-73, lost a legal battle to halt the project in July but it filed an appeal. Underwood said the appeal will have to be resolved first.
And, the project needs a lot more funding before it can get started. So far, roughly $23 million in state and federal funds have been allocated, but that money is to be spent on preliminary engineering work, Underwood said. No actual construction money has been provided, she said.
The total cost of the Virginia stretch of I-73 has been estimated at more than $4 billion, she said.
Once engineering work is completed, rights of way to property will have to be obtained before construction can begin, Underwood added. |
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