Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090134
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's what yet another unfortunate truck driver learned Monday.
Truckers favor the 20-mile route between Pearisburg and Dublin as a shortcut between West Virginia and Interstate 81.
But the road changes width and speed limits frequently as it winds over several mountains. It's a roller-coaster ride that tests brakes and driving ability.
Virginia 100 wasn't wide enough to hold the 18-wheeler that veered off the road and down a 30-foot embankment Monday, spilling diesel fuel in nearby Little Walker Creek.
Such accidents are common. In February, a family sat in their living room looking at pictures of a tractor-trailer wreck in their yard off Virginia 100 several months earlier.
Hearing the sound of squealing brakes, they looked out the window to see another tractor-trailer crashing down the same hillside.
Those accidents, like Monday's, caused potentially hazardous materials to be spilled in streams. Special cleanup crews had to be called to the scene, along with police and rescue squad members and tow trucks.
Water supplies are put at risk, and traffic is backed up or re-routed while the spills and the wrecked vehicles are cleaned up. In short, it's a mess.
"It's a substandard road, no question," said Dan Brugh, district engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation, of Virginia 100.
Yet recent improvements to the road have reduced the frequency of traffic accidents, and more help is coming, he said.
The Transportation Department is planning to begin a $32 million project in 1995 that, when completed, will eliminate two-lane stretches of the route between Giles and Pulaski.
Already, the road has been four-laned from Pearisburg to near Staffordsville. That work and the alternate route offered by Interstate 77 have made Virginia 100 less perilous, Brugh said.
"We don't see anything near the number of accidents that we used to," he said.
Still, the improvements can't come too soon for frequent travelers, such as commuters who use the road to reach work or New River Community College.
"We're looking forward to it," said Ken Weaver, Giles County's administrator.
Weaver said he drove Virginia 100 at night while heading back and forth from Pearisburg to teach at the community college, and said the experience could be harrowing.
Better transportation access on a wider, safer road is also important for the economic vitality of Giles County, he said.
Even though traffic is lower on this route than it once was, a high percentage of trucks use the road, Brugh said.
Virginia 100 allows a more direct route to Interstate 81 than following four-lane U.S. 460 past Blacksburg and through Christiansburg.
It's unlikely that truck traffic will be prohibited until the road is widened, Brugh said, because the alternate route - U.S. 460 - is also overburdened.
Weaver said the importance of Interstate 77 to reducing traffic on Virginia 100 was illustrated last weekend when a fire in the East River Mountain tunnel closed I-77 at the West Virginia line.
"I followed a chain of trucks [on Virginia 100]," he said.
Brugh said the Transportation Department has the funding to begin preliminary land acquisition for widening the road soon, and expects the project to continue on schedule - despite the cost.
"It will be a massive construction project," he said.
by CNB