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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 1, 1991                   TAG: 9103010507
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FLOOD PROJECT INSPECTION SET

Consulting engineers will inspect all property needed for the Roanoke River flood-reduction project to determine if construction will uncover hazardous-waste dumps or other potential environmental problems.

City Council has awarded a $152,000 contract to Dewberry & Davis, a Fairfax company with a branch office in Roanoke, to make an environmental assessment of 237 parcels that will be acquired.

Kit Kiser, city director of utilities and operations, said Thursday that federal environmental regulations impose "significant potential liability" on the city. To protect against liability, the city must make reasonable efforts to determine if each parcel has potential environmental problems, he said.

The project will involve widening the channel and constructing flood walls at several places along a 10-mile section of the river.

Work will not begin until the summer of 1992, but consultants will start their inspections soon because it will take several months to complete the work, Kiser said. Appraisals also will be required before the city acquires the land.

The city will ask owners to donate the land or easements for the project. Many have already agreed to do so, but the city will buy property that isn't donated.

Meanwhile, Kiser said, construction on the flood proofing of the Roanoke Valley regional sewage treatment plant, an element in the flood-reduction plan, is expected to begin this spring. Final plans for this part of the project will be finished in 30 days.

A flood wall and earthen berm will be built along the river in front of the treatment plant, in the Riverdale neighborhood near the 13th Street Southeast bridge.

President Bush has included $470,000 for the flood-reduction plan in the proposed federal budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Congress appropriated $2.3 million for the project in the current fiscal year.

City officials said the funds will enable the $34 million project to stay on schedule. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to award the major construction contract during the summer of 1992 and will seek $8 million in federal funds for the project in the fiscal 1993 budget.

The city's share of the cost is $14 million and the federal share is $20 million.

by CNB