ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990                   TAG: 9007180151
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

TRAFFIC DETOUR PLANNED FOR ACCIDENTS ON I-81

The next time Interstate 81 is completely shut down for an extended period by a traffic accident in Wythe County, incoming traffic may be rerouted onto U.S. 460 and U.S. 58.

Capt. Roy Fowler of the Wytheville Police Department told members of the Wythe County Incident Management Team recently that traffic would be rerouted before it gets to Wytheville if a complete shutdown of the interstate system took place.

Such a scenario took place July 7, when I-81 between exits 23 and 24 was closed by a tractor-trailer accident. Thousands of cars made the slow crawl through Wythe County from 8 p.m. until early the next morning.

Fowler said that in the future, traffic could be detoured onto U.S. 460 and U.S. 58 beginning as far away as Bluefield and Abingdon. In the July 7 incident, traffic was routed to Virginia 610, a secondary road not wide enough to allow two tractor-trailers to pass at the same time. - Staff report 


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