Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104070212
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOE TENNIS/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
At a special 8 a.m. session, council overturned its 3-2 vote of March 25 which favored a road-improvement project near Radford University over revamping the stretch of Rock Road between Wadsworth Street and First Street.
This time around, council's decision was unanimous.
The 5-0 vote came after the city staff and council members learned last week that the state has spent "somewhere in the neighborhood of $12,000 to $15,000" on preliminary engineering work on the Rock Road project, Mayor Tom Starnes said.
To change course and put the other project - a plan to connect Jefferson Street to Tyler Avenue - at the top of the list might cost the city that money the state already has spent, Starnes said.
City Engineer Jim Hurt will present the council's request for Rock Road's improvements at the state's pre-allocation meeting in Salem on Monday.
Vice Mayor Polly Corn, who voted in favor of the Tyler-Jefferson project on March 25, made the motion at Saturday's meeting to make Rock Road the top priority.
"If we had fully understood . . . that this project was in progress and that state money had already been expended on it, I don't think anybody here would have ever voted to make the decision to put Tyler-Jefferson first," she told the 25 citizens who filled the council chamber's benches at the meeting.
In November, Corn said she favored the estimated $2.3 million Tyler-Jefferson project over the estimated $4.3 million proposed improvements to Rock Road because she thought traffic was heavier there than on the Rock Road stretch. And once the University's Dalton Hall, located at Adams and Fairfax streets, opens, the traffic likely will increase, she said.
Corn made a second motion at Saturday's meeting, instructing City Manager Bob Asbury to begin discussing with Radford University and the Department of Transportation a plan to secure funding for a potential accelerated Tyler-Jefferson project. That project also would include improvement of another stretch of Tyler Avenue on the west side of the university.
For Rock Road, council wants a right of way for a potential four lanes along the stretch, although initial construction plans would be for two lanes.
The proposed four-lane right of way might measure 70 to 90 feet, Councilman Bob Nicholson figured.
"I want the general public to fully understand that," Nicholson said. "I don't want people coming back and saying, `You promised us a two-lane road. Why do you need 90 feet of right of way?' "
Starnes said the council would be shortsighted if it did not make plans for a possible four lanes on Rock Road. Widening the road might not be needed for 15 to 20 years, Starnes guessed, but a right of way would, for now, help builders know where to construct homes.
Corn warned that the proposed project will cost a "good portion" of lawn space to Rock Road residents. "Their front lawns are going to be removed, and that is the cost of progress. This can't be done without doing that along the way, so I hope that will be taken into consideration."
Asbury said the date of the project's ground-breaking will be based on the allocation of state funds.
Starnes guessed the project could take years to begin. "I don't want anyone leaving here with the idea that it's going to take place right away," he said.
by CNB