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

DATE: SUNDAY, June 6, 1993                   TAG: 9306060124
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BLUEFIELD                                LENGTH: Medium

NORTHBOUND LANES REOPEN IN I-77 TUNNEL

The northbound lanes of the East River Mountain Tunnel were opened about 12:30 p.m., dispatcher M.F. Shannon said. Traffic was moving normally through both northbound and southbound lanes, he said.

Highway officials had rerouted both north and southbound travel through the southbound tunnel after a motor home caught fire Thursday.

Clayton Lane of Bellview, Fla., said he was 100 feet from the tunnel's end when his 1979 Pace Arrow motor home backfired, began misfiring, then burst into flames.

Lane, 83, said the fire destroyed the motor home and all of his possessions.

There were no injuries and vehicles in the tunnel at the time of the fire were able to drive around the blazing vehicle.

Laura Bullock, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said about 1,000 feet of light fixtures in the mile-long tunnel were burned and numerous wall and ceiling tiles destroyed by the heat.

The department began repairs Friday morning and repaired pavement and installed a temporary lighting system.

Permanent repairs to the lighting system and replacement of damaged wall tiles will be completed in the next few weeks. The additional repairs might cause temporary lane closures in the tunnel, transportation officials said.

Charles A. Fore, the tunnel superintendent, said the tunnel averages 18,000 vehicles a day during the week and between 25,000 and 30,000 on the weekends.

The fire created the second big bottleneck at tunnels along I-77 this year. The March blizzard choked traffic, leaving hundreds stranded in the Big Walker Mountain tunnel in Bland County.