
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 13, 1990                   TAG: 9004130892
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEW TOWER WILL BE WORTH THE HASSLES

THE INK is drying on the various contracts and agreements, and Faison Associates is scheduled to begin work presently on the new Dominion Tower in downtown Roanoke.

It will take a few weeks to put up new signs and to change traffic patterns, creating extra turn lanes and two-way streets around the City Market. Then the Jefferson Street leg of the Hunter Viaduct will be torn down and the actual construction can begin. Some predictions:

Traffic downtown will be more congested. Drivers will not be familiar with the new routes. Heavy trucks will add to the confusion. Horns will blow; tempers will flare; people will complain. Within a few weeks or months, they will adjust. They'll figure out new ways to get from here to there.

Some will continue to decry the loss of the viaduct. Others will be amazed that anyone could become so emotionally involved with a chunk of concrete and steel, though, when pressed, they will admit that the viaduct was more attractive than many pieces of modern sculpture.

Downtown itself will be noisier and dirtier while the tower is being built. Dust will be kicked up. It will settle on cars and clothes. The cacophony of digging, drilling, hammering and welding will get on nerves. It might even disrupt the pigeons.

Construction of the new Second Street bridge, scheduled to begin in December, will add to the noise, the dirt and the confusion.

Some will grumble that the tower is ugly and unnecessary. They'll wonder whether Roanoke really needs more The cacophony of digging, drilling, hammering and welding will get on nerves. It might even disrupt the pigeons. stores and offices and parking. "This used to be such a quiet town," they'll say.

But when the work is done and the Dominion Tower is a reality, the doubts and the questions will fade quickly.

Roanoke needs this kind of development. The building is not an end in itself. Instead it's an important, necessary step in the vitalization of the downtown area. The construction signs say "In growth there is disorder," and that still holds true. But the coming disorder will be tolerable. The immediate inconveniences that the construction causes will be minor compared to the tower's long-term benefits.

by CNB