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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 31, 1994                   TAG: 9409080100
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: By KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                   LENGTH: Long

NEW WAL-MART COULD DRAW 14,000 CARS DAILY

As many as 14,000 vehicles a day may pull into the lot at a proposed 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter to be built across from New River Valley Mall, according to a preliminary traffic study to be presented to the town's Planning Commission today.

Seventy percent of those vehicles would enter the 27-acre site from a new intersection on U.S. 460, about 900 feet southeast of the intersection with Peppers Ferry Road. This is now a small drive, named Laurel Street, where traffic from Kmart exits onto U.S. 460.

The remaining 30 percent of the traffic would enter from Peppers Ferry Road on Bradley Drive.

New traffic lights are proposed for both intersections. The light at Marshall Drive on Peppers Ferry Road, located at an exit from New River Valley Mall, could be removed.

The information on the store's impact is in a traffic analysis by a Washington firm, Gorove/Slade Associates, delivered to town offices Monday.

The study estimates that traffic will back up 400 feet along Peppers Ferry Road if a traffic light is installed at Bradley Drive.

Last week, Tom Sheets, manager of the New River Valley Mall, said he was worried that Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, 520 feet from the light and proposed to be reopened to supply the Corning plant on U.S. 460, would interfere with traffic.

The study recommends changing the cycle of the traffic light at Peppers Ferry Road and U.S. 460 to 120 seconds from 210 seconds, a proposal that is already in the works.

According to the traffic study, U.S. 460 Alternate 3A around the retail area at Peppers Ferry Road and U.S. 460, expected to open after the turn of the century, will "ease congestion ... and will allow the traffic network in the vicinity of the retail center to function at a more satisfactory level."

At least one nearby businessman said the proposed Wal-Mart is good news.

"I think it's a very positive development for the whole area. I look forward to welcoming it," said Herb Alcorn, president of Leisure Way Industries, Inc., owner of Triangle Lanes Bowling Alley, which will adjoin the shopping center on two sides.

Across U.S. 460, Greg Edel, Kmart manager, said the U.S. 460 corridor is "a hot area. It seems like it's a [shopping] destination for so many people."

Business at his 92,000-square-foot store has been "phenomenal" in recent weeks, and he said that more Wal-Mart floor space "has been pretty much inevitable because they've been doing very well at the store they have over here."

Town officials had been awaiting information on the shopping center's impact on traffic after receiving a site plan that included blue prints Aug. 19.

Christiansburg's Planning Commission meets today at 4 p.m. in the municipal office building downtown to review the proposal. Commissioners may vote to set a public hearing on some aspects of the proposal, but will most likely wait before offering a recommendation to the Town Council.

Final approval for the project could come some time this fall, and the shopping center could open in 1996, the traffic study states.

At today's meeting, town officials will brief commissioners on changes they recommend to the plans. Most changes are minor, having to do, for example, with the site's landscaping, said Town Manager John Lemley. But it means the blue prints will have to be resubmitted.

That news will not be a surprise to the Bentonville, Ark., engineering firm that drew up the plans. Town officials met with an engineer from the firm Monday, and he will attend today's meeting.

Previously, members of the town's Planning Commission and council have seemed receptive to the project. Council rezoned land for it in June.

\ HIGHLIGHTS FROM WAL-MART'S BLUEPRINTS

One-level, 200,384-square-foot (4.6-acre) store.

1,045 parking spaces.

Separate 88,205-square-foot building.

Separate 36,117-square-foot building.

Storm-water retention pond.

New traffic light at intersection of U.S. 460 and Laurel Street.

Landscaping that will include sugar maples, eastern red bud and white pine.

Room behind the proposed buildings for the Huckleberry Trail, a bicycle and pedestrian route between Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

by CNB