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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 10, 1990                   TAG: 9007100069
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NS BUILDING NOT MIRED BY MUCK

Test drilling has turned up layers of muck sandwiched between layers of rock at the site, said NS spokesman Don Piedmont. The 11-story building is to rise on a former parking lot at the southeast corner or Franklin and Williamson roads.

The soil conditions will require some additional foundation work but will not throw the building off schedule, Piedmont said. Ground-breaking is planned for September.

That news should help quell recent rumors that the railroad had decided to back out of the project.

When it is complete, the office building will house 900 NS workers, who now work in two brick buildings across Jefferson Street from Hotel Roanoke.

The new NS building will contain 220,000 square feet with about 180,000 square feet of usable working space. NS will occupy all of the building except some commercial space on the ground floor.

NS is buying the 65,000-square-foot lot from the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Of the estimated $25 million cost of the building, $1.375 million will go to the housing authority for the land.

Herbert McBride, executive director of the housing authority, said he hoped the railroad would not be asking for an adjustment in the price because of the soil conditions.

The company doing test drilling is sinking nearly 40 holes in the site or one at the planned location of each of the building's supporting columns, McBride said. He said the drilling company could provide him with a better report on the soil conditions by the end of the week.