ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY DELAYS ROAD PROJECT

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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992                   TAG: 9201050228
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY DELAYS ROAD PROJECT
If motorists are waiting for a new access road into downtown Roanoke, they'll need patience because it won't be finished until the summer of 1993 at the earliest.
Construction on the new Second Street and Gainsboro Road route has been delayed by a study to determine if there is any contaminated soil or other environmental problems.
Work had been scheduled to begin this past fall, but it won't begin until July at the earliest, according to Bob Bengtson, city traffic engineer.
Construction of the $10 million project, which will include a 636-foot bridge over the Second Street railroad crossing, will take a year.
The four-lane highway will be part of an inner-loop street system designed to provide easy access to downtown. It will replace a north-south corridor eliminated when the Jefferson Street leg of the Hunter Viaduct was closed for the Dominion Tower.
Bengtson said Thursday that the environmental study will be finished soon, but 82 parcels of real estate still must be acquired for the right of way.
When the original timetable was developed, city officials did not anticipate that an environmental study would be needed. But the city has started making such studies because of federal laws that impose heavy liability on the owners of land with environmental problems, Bengtson said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB