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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994                   TAG: 9403140236
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NARROWS                                LENGTH: Medium

RETAINING-WALL REPAIRS COULD TAKE THREE MONTHS

The retaining wall - one of several along the highway's westbound lanes - was repaired last year at a cost of nearly $38,000. Recently, however, the 30- to 40-foot wall section began slipping down the steep slope, prompting the Virginia Department of Transportation to close the westbound passing lane as a precaution.

Sunday, the wall gave way, forcing closure of the westbound lanes altogether.

"With all the water that we've had here recently, the rest of the wall section slid down the hill," VDOT district engineer Dan Brugh said Friday.

Traffic has been re-routed to the eastbound lanes until repairs can be made, and the speed limit along the busy stretch has been lowered to 45 mph.

Narrows Town Manager Rob Mercure said the temporary bottleneck could cause some disruption for workers who commute long distances to the Hoechst-Celanese plant in Narrows and the Appalachian Power Co. station in Glen Lynn.

VDOT geologist Stan Hite in Richmond said his office hopes to have a new design for the wall in a couple of weeks. He agreed with Brugh that excessive rain and snowfall this winter was a "big contributing factor" to the wall's failure, but he said there wasn't enough support beneath the wall either. Workers rebuilding the wall will excavate down to solid rock for more support.

Brugh said the new design would probably incorporate better drainage to keep water from being trapped behind the wall and pushing it away from the slope.

Hite made a "ballpark guess" of $100,000 to complete the repairs. Hite called the area a bad one for slides and said he was surprised it wasn't worse.