Four-lane 220 was long ago promised and is long overdue
Editor:
How many of you have driven through Botetourt County, headed north out of Fincastle on U.S. 220, on a beautiful four-lane divided highway, only to see it end abruptly at Eagle Rock, about 10 miles from Clifton Forge. Did you wonder how VDOT could have engineered a highway like that which would end in the middle of a rural county?
Well, lots of people wonder the same thing, and with good reason, because back in the late 1980s, VDOT had planned to complete that highway all the way to I-64 in Alleghany County. All of the plans were made, much right-of-way was purchased, and the project was well on its way to completion. The idea was to connect the Roanoke area, and Botetourt County, to the Alleghany Highlands.
You may ask how a wonderful, sensible plan like that got sidetracked – and it is a good question – with lots of feeble answers. The bottom line is that the four-lane should have been completed long time ago.
In 1989, I was in the House of Delegates, representing Alleghany and Botetourt counties, and I was standing on a VDOT “soap box” overlooking Eagle Rock next to Gov. Gerald Baliles. We looked north towards Clifton Forge and talked about how someday soon the four-lane U.S. 220 would be completed to at least Iron Gate, hopefully to Clifton Forge.
A few years ago, I sat in Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s office with Senator Creigh Deeds and Delegate Terry Austin and heard Gov. McAuliffe promise us $180,000,000 to build a super two-lane road (U.S. 220) from Eagle Rock to Iron Gate and we were delighted at that good news. Sadly, that amount got cut in half somehow but, as we speak, that two-lane section is set to be completed this fall.
The two-lane is fine and is a big safety improvement, but it is not the four-lane highway VDOT planned and promised.
I am a little bit like an old dog with a bone and I will not be satisfied until we get the four-lane highway. I tell VDOT every chance I get that this is part of former Gov. Mills Godwin’s Arterial Highway System, designed to join major areas in Virginia by four-lane highways. We have even built a four-lane highway to Grundy, for gosh sakes!
Former Gov. Gerald Baliles was a big proponent of improving infrastructure in rural areas. He understood that nothing helps an area develop more than a good road system. U.S. 220 is the gateway to the Alleghany Highlands. It connects the Roanoke area to Iron Gate, Clifton Forge, Alleghany County, Covington, I-64, the Homestead Hotel and the Greenbrier Hotel.
My hope is that VDOT will find funds to complete this important highway. Perhaps money will come down from President Biden infrastructure bill. That would be a classic example of how to help rural areas. Whatever the source, this is a project that was long ago promised and is long overdue. I am eternally optimistic that it will be built.
William T. Wilson
Covington
(Wilson is a Covington attorney who served in the House of Delegates from 1974-1989.)
