Sunday, October 12, 2008
Learning to love the Smart Road
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Baptists might leave downtown Blacksburg
- A theater rises between town and campus
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
From the RoundTable blog
Virginians have a curious tendency to hold grudges. Events that took place more than 100 years ago still taint perceptions and generate hostility toward perceived offenders.
Recent history, too, poisons the community when a few people cling to the bitterness of a losing cause. Consider the Virginia Tech Smart Road.
Little more than a decade ago, opponents tried to block construction of the research facility in Montgomery County. They filed lawsuits, staged unlawful protests at the groundbreaking, tried to whip citizens into a frenzy and sought help from the board of supervisors.
At each turn, they came up short. Judges ruled against them. Protesters pleaded guilty and paid fines. Most citizens yawned. And supervisors approved the project.
News reports from the time repeatedly declared the resistance over, but repeatedly reporters, columnists and analysts were wrong. The grudge persists to this day. When The Current publishes its annual Best of the New River Valley survey, the Smart Road always shows up as one of the biggest wastes of taxpayer dollars.
Yet those who can look beyond their old hatred will discover that the Smart Road has been a boon for the New River Valley.
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which runs the Smart Road, recently held an open house. School buses crowded the parking lot, replaced with adults' cars later in the day. Visitors toured the command center, visible from U.S. 460, and rode buses through an artificial downpour.
The 2.2-mile road includes a bridge across the Ellett Valley and a roundabout at the far end. The surface contains sensors, and engineers can simulate just about any road conditions found in the United States with custom lighting and weather machines that create rain, snow, fog and anything in between.
There is even an intersection where engineers can conduct the sorts of tests that are impractical on a public street.
"We think of the Smart Road as a lab," explained Operations Director Cindy Wilkinson. "It's all about a safe, controlled environment for experiments."
David Clarke of the Virginia Department of Transportation likens it to a chemistry lab. A chemistry lab has beakers, Bunsen burners and thermometers. The Smart Road has the roadway, a bridge, sensors and weather devices.
Your thoughts
Researchers line up to use the lab. They bring $17 million with them annually from federal, state and private grants.
Almost all of that cash stays in the New River Valley. It pays the salaries of about 250 Tech researchers, technicians and other VTTI employees, just the sort of high-tech jobs people always talk about attracting.
They test vehicles, surfaces and new technology to create safer cars, safer roadways and safer road designs.
"The goal is to bring down the number of fatalities on Virginia's roads," Wilkinson said.
"I don't doubt the road has saved some lives," Clarke added.
Researchers also develop better, more cost-effective road materials that will save governments money.
Opponents remind everyone that the Smart Road still does not reach Interstate 81, as had been promised. It was supposed to make travel between Blacksburg and Christiansburg faster.
"This was an investment in a road that wouldn't immediately have public access," Clarke explained. For now, U.S. 460 handles traffic just fine, and the Smart Road remains a closed research facility. If traffic someday overwhelms 460, the state will push the Smart Road the remaining three miles to I-81.
Besides, VDOT does not have enough money to maintain existing highways let alone build a roadway that would shave a whole couple of minutes off the drive for Hokie fans.
If the state is willing to get a little creative, though, it might find some more money in the Smart Road -- or at least in its bridge and the spectacular view from high above the Ellett Valley.
Most people probably don't know that the bridge is hollow. With windows, a little remodeling and some decorating, the inside could offer a spectacular venue for a coffee shop or restaurant.
Who wouldn't enjoy sipping a latte and watching the valley come to life in the spring or enjoying a romantic meal while the shadows descend on a valley burning with fall color?
It is a public-private partnership waiting to happen.
Maybe over a glass of wine, with nothing but air below, people will finally give the Smart Road a fresh look.
Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
