YOUR

YOUR

CONGRESSMAN

REPORTS

By Rep. Burr P. Harrison

Anyone who has a home or business on or near the Valley Pike (U. S. Route 11),or, for that matter, who uses the road frequently has a direct stake in highway legislation being considered in Congross.

Actually, any new Federal highway program will affect the pocketbooks of ill of us. A Federal "grant” merely means that our tax money goes to Washington, .where the bureaucrats “process” it, and some of it finds its way back as a “grant” for roads or other public improvements.

I mention the Valley Pike particularly because it is one of the Virginia highways in the 40,000 miles of key roads of the United States included in the National Interstate System. These are the roads considered most important to the Nation,from standpoints of commerce and national defense. Federal highway officials would like to see most of them built to four lanes or better, with limited access, as soon as possible.

In the case of the Valley Pike, this could mean drastic relocation of the road, with by-passes around all principal cities and towns.

Present Federal standards for major highways in the National Interstate System call for elimination of level intersections and installation of a limited number of grade separations ( underpasses and overpasses). These would be the only places at which the motorist or trucker could get onto, or off, the “new” Valley Pike.

Even more drastic is the Federal idea that the rights of way 'for principal roads in the-National Interstate System should be wide enough to insure governmental control ovier all business establishments located along the superhighways, such as restaurants, filling stations and motels.

This policy was carried to the ultimate in the report of the Clay Commission, which President Eisenhower" urged Congress to adopt last year. The Commission proposed establishment of a new Federal corporation which would is