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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994                   TAG: 9409060032
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VDOT RECOMMENDS WALKWAY

Officials in the Virginia Department of Transportation on Friday recommended the state accept a $5.3 million bid for the elevated footbridge between the Hotel Roanoke north of the tracks and the First Union parking garage on the south side.

The recommendation is the first step toward approval of the contract. It now goes to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which will vote on it Sept.15.

Normally, the appointed board rubber-stamps VDOT recommendations, said Peter Sensabaugh, district construction engineer for VDOT's Salem District.

The decision is a relief for city officials, downtown merchants and managers of the hotel and conference center, who need the footbridge to link the redeveloped hotel to parking, downtown shops and restaurants on the other side of the tracks.

"I'm very pleased to hear that," said City Manager Bob Herbert. "There are a lot of people who are depending on that connection, and a timely connection."

VDOT originally estimated the glitzy bridge would cost $3.2 million, and agency officials were surprised when the lowest of four bids was just over $5.2 million. It was submitted by Roanoke-based Branch Highways Inc.

The agency then was faced with deciding whether to go ahead and spend the extra $2 million or redesign the project to lower costs and rebid it. The latter option would have delayed the walkway's completion by months.

Sensabaugh said that if the board approved the contract, Branch Highways could begin construction as early as Oct.1.

The hotel is expected to open April1. City and state officials had hoped to have the walkway open then or by early summer at the latest.

At 390 feet long and 15 feet wide, the glass-enclosed bridge would cross 25 feet above Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks and replace a perilous grade crossing at Jefferson Street.

Branch's bid was $5,326,181. The high bid was roughly $1 million more - $6,327,083 - from Fort Chiswell Construction Corp., Sensabaugh said.

If the project moves forward, the city's share of the cost would increase from an estimated $65,000 to more than $100,000.

The city also is paying 100 percent of an additional 80-foot-long covered loggia, or walkway, between the hotel and the conference center. The loggia was estimated to cost an additional $135,000. It is unclear whether the loggia's price tag also rose during bidding, Sensabaugh said.

Herbert termed the additional costs to city taxpayers a "drop in the bucket" compared with the importance the bridge plays in downtown redevelopment plans.