ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 17, 1995                   TAG: 9503170034
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


BRANCH LOOKING AT 6 LOCATIONS

The president of Branch Highways Inc. said Thursday that residents' concerns about a proposed asphalt plant in Botetourt County are premature and unfounded.

Branch president Ralph Shivers said the company, the largest builder of roads in Virginia, is looking at six potential sites for the asphalt operation.

Shivers said two or three of those sites are in Roanoke and would be more advantageous than the Botetourt County sites for Branch's operations.

``Roanoke city would be the ideal place,'' Shivers said. ``It is the center of our market area.''

The cost of hauling asphalt mix to and from the job site is one of the major cost factors in building roads. Contractors now can plow up existing asphalt mix, reheat it, and reapply it to roads.

Branch is looking for a site that is accessible to major arterial highways and is close to rock quarries. Only about 30 percent of the asphalt the company uses is recycled from existing roadways.

The proposed plant, which will use state-of-the-art equipment to minimize emissions, could crank out about 1,200 tons of asphalt mixed with gravel each day. Roanoke area road projects require about a half-million tons of asphalt mix each year.

Botetourt County may not be as attractive to the company, which recently lost a $10 million contract to resurface Interstate 81 in Botetourt County to Adams Construction Co. of Roanoke. Adams already has an asphalt plant in Blue Ridge.

Residents of the Blue Ridge section of Botetourt County raised concerns several weeks ago after learning that Branch was considering locating the plant on the site of the former Weblite block plant off Webster Brick Road.

A citizens group, formed to oppose the plant, argued that excessive big truck traffic would be dumped onto a small rural road, which also serves the county's largest elementary school and a county park. The residents expressed concern that emissions from the plant may be harmful.

Branch received a similarly cool reception when it floated the idea of locating the plant in an industrial park in Cloverdale along U.S. 11. Privately, county officials question whether the plant would be compatible with surrounding land uses, one factor considered in approving a necessary zoning changes.

The company would not face that problem at the Blue Ridge site, which is already zoned for manufacturing.



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