Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 22, 1994 TAG: 9401220283
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Waste Line Express will not begin operating until March at the earliest.
The bad weather halted construction of the landfill at Smith Gap in Roanoke County.
Frigid temperatures froze the soil and clay under the plastic liner and prevented construction crews from completing their work.
John Hubbard, chief executive officer of the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, said Thursday that little progress has been made in the past month because of snow and ice.
"We need about 45 days of good weather," Hubbard told the authority's board.
If the cold weather persists, the 1,200-acre landfill might not be finished until late March, he said.
The original schedule called for the facility to begin receiving trash in October, but the opening was delayed because of problems in coordinating the work of several contractors.
The revised schedule called for the landfill to open by the end of December, but that was pushed back because of snow.
The Waste Line Express, the first rail system of its kind in the United States, made an inaugural run in December to give politicians, contractors and government workers a sneak preview.
Passenger cars took 300 people on the 66-mile round trip from the transfer station to the landfill.
The latest delay apparently will not cause major problems, because the existing landfill in southeast Roanoke County still has capacity.
Authority officials had worried that the old landfill might be full before the new one opened.
But Jeff Cromer, landfill manager, said Thursday there is enough space to bury garbage until the new landfill opens.
Meanwhile, the transfer station on Hollins Road off Orange Avenue is nearly finished.
Hubbard said he hopes the authority's offices can be moved into the building soon.
When the trash train begins operations, trucks will take garbage to the transfer station, where it will be loaded onto rail cars.
Each night, the Waste Line Express will pull 10 or 12 trash-filled rail cars to the landfill, leave them there and haul empties back to the transfer station.
In other action Thursday, the authority's board:
Voted to oppose a state proposal to impose a fee of $10 a ton on all trash buried in landfills or burned in an incinerator. Former Gov. Douglas Wilder included the fee in his proposed budget for the next biennium, but several state legislators said they oppose the measure.
Elected Bob Benninger, Vinton's assistant town manager, chairman, succeeding Gardner Smith, general services director for Roanoke County.
by CNB