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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995                   TAG: 9503240144
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

REMOVING THE DOGLEG

The state Transportation Department plans to spend $2.5 million by 1996 to eliminate a mile-long dogleg in the northbound lanes of U.S. 11/460 between Elliston and Lafayette in Eastern Montgomery County. A consultant is designing the relocation and the department hopes to put the project out to bid in the fall and begin construction next spring. When completed in late 1996, the northbound lane will run parallel to the current southbound lane. The project includes a new, $500,000 northbound bridge over the Norfolk Southern tracks. No public hearing will be required because the state owns the right of way where the new lanes and bridge will be built.

The relocation will mean the closing and removal of a narrow, one-lane bridge over the tracks between Hale's Trailer Park and elliston-Lafayette Elementary School. To reach the school, trailer park residents will need to backtracta half mile south to the new road, then drive another half mile north down U.S. 11/460. The existing portions of the dogleg on either side of the railroad bridge will be maintained as secondary roads.

For more information, call Dan Brugh, resident highway engineer at VDOT's Christiansburg office, at 381-7200.

by CNB