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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230454
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GAINSBORO HIGHWAY DEBATED

The proposed road appears to have been designed mainly for improved access to downtown without consideration of its impact on Gainsboro and our Lady of the Valley retirement center on North Jefferson Street, said Richard Young, a spokesman for the center.

Young said Tuesday night that the project, which will include a new bridge over the Second Street railroad crossing, will detract from the quiet and residential character of the retirement center.

"We support road improvements in Gainsboro, but has the effect on the Gainsboro neighborhood been taken into account or was the project designed solely for the benefit of downtown workers?" Young asked at a public hearing on the project.

The $9.5 million project will involve the construction of a four-lane highway for three-quarters of a mile in the Second Street and Gainsboro Road corridor. It will tie into Gainsboro Road near Harrison Avenue.

The highway will provide a new north-south corridor for improved access to downtown between Orange Avenue and Salem Avenue. It is designed in part to replace the north-south corridor that was eliminated by the recent closing of the Jefferson Street leg of the viaduct.

The new bridge over the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks at the Second Street crossing will be 636 feet long - more than twice the length of a football field - and cover most of the distance between Salem Avenue and Loudon Avenue. It will span Shenandoah Avenue and the entrance to the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Roanoke.

Robert McNichols, management agent for Our Lady of the Valley, said the "human and pedestrian scale" of the proposed highway has been overlooked.

McNichols said the road, which is projected to have a daily traffic count of 20,000 vehicles within 20 years, would change Gainsboro's residential character and isolate part of the neighborhood. He proposed several changes to help retain the residential atmosphere.

Richard Williams, a consulting engineer for the Times-World Corp., said the newspaper company is concerned about the highway's impact on drainage along Salem Avenue.

Williams said the newspaper's building at Second Street and Salem has experienced flooding in the past. "We would like some study given to this to let us know what the impact on drainage will be," he said.

The intersection at Second Street and Salem will be raised 4 feet and retaining walls will be built near the newspaper building as part of the project.

City Traffic Engineer Robert Bengtson said the project will require the relocation of five families, two businesses and one non-profit organization.

The schedule calls for construction on the project to begin late this year and be finished by Jan. 1, 1992.

A second phase will involve the relocation and widening of Wells Avenue between Williamson Road and the new highway. Construction on the Wells Avenue project is expected to begin about one year after the Second Street and Gainsboro Road project is finished.

State funds will cover 98 percent of the cost.

The new road will be part of a proposed inner loop for downtown traffic. The loop follows mostly existing streets. It will include Wells Avenue, Gainsboro Road, the new bridge, Second Street, Franklin Road and Williamson Road.