Western loop road may bring traffic relief, but it also raises questions

In the late 1950s, a local restaurant and motel in Corbin, Ky., faced a serious threat.

Situated directly on U.S. 25, the main north-south artery through the commonwealth, business had been brisk, and the dining room that once sat six had expanded to accommodate 142 customers.

Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall for the mom-and-pop operation as soon as planners for Interstate 75 picked a route two miles west of theirs. With the completion of the interstate, the owner had no choice but to sell the businesses, pack up, and try to find a new career for himself at the age of 66.

Fortunately for our protagonist, the story had a happy ending. After years on the road, Col. Harland Sanders was able to convince franchisees across the United States and Canada to spread his blend of “11 herbs and spices” on pressure-cooked fried chicken, and an American icon was born.

But I wonder if his Corbin neighbors found similar success? When I drove through the town a decade ago, signs weren’t positive.

You don’t have to look far to see similar tales of the destruction of construction — a drive down Route 1 after the completion of I-95 was surely sobering. And no matter where you’re from, we can all picture others we’ve witnessed — the old shells of forgotten roadside enterprise.

All of this, of course, brings me to the long-proposed Culpeper loop and the recently-in-the-news western bypass segment connecting U.S. 522 and Route 729. The latest proposal by the Commonwealth Transportation Board places the road entirely outside of the town borders, and a few members of Town Council dared rethink their financial commitment to it.

(I wonder if there would be this much uproar, considering the current state of the economy, if the town was reconsidering funding for a homeless shelter or a new park?)

Apparently, critics of those raising the questions seem to have forgotten their Emerson: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

The editorial board of this newspaper admonished, “For the town to take its ball and go home, that would be a shame” over what it described as “a project that stands to benefit the whole community.”

It’s very hard to argue against traffic relief through downtown Culpeper; it’s particularly hard to make the case to those who sit in the traffic every day. Clearly, we’ve got to figure out how to get people from their homes to their jobs and vice versa.

And the town is culpable (to some extent) for the housing growth on U.S. 522 that has exacerbated this traffic problem. But to issue a schoolyard challenge without considering all the winners and losers of a bypass is at best naïve and at worst harmful to the community. Especially in light of council’s endorsement of a resolution backing the CTB plan.

Ultimately there may be no reason to get too worked up over this. The western loop appears to be one of those projects that’s always “just a few years” from breaking ground. But the time to ask questions about its impact is today (or more accurately, yesterday). I have a few:

n Has anyone bothered to ask businesses “bypassed” by the new route how they feel about their town taxes being spent to divert their customers? I’d like to hear from Baby Jim’s, McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and others who play a big role in making sure our morning commuters are awake and fed.

- Aren’t we just moving the bottleneck? Instead of Main and Evans, are the new chokepoints to become the two-lane sections of U.S. 29 at Inlet and Route 729? Not to mention the left-hand turn back onto U.S. 522.

- Are we creating a speedway adjacent to CCHS, CCMS and Yowell Elementary? If there’s uproar for an overpass above Route 666 near Eastern View, why would we re-route the traffic looking for the “quick” way home right past three other schools?

- How will the bypass affect our county’s commitment to agriculture? Will we simply be remaking the mistakes of our northern neighbors by investing in roads as a cash crop?

- Finally, will a new road bring it’s own development that merely clogs the solution?

If Col. Sanders were alive today and we asked him if he’d change the history that ran through Corbin, he might say no. But if we had talked to him in the early ’50s, he would have had a number of questions. And no one would have faulted him for raising them.

Clements’ column runs every Monday on the editorial page.