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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 23, 1995                   TAG: 9505230114
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PETERS CREEK RD. SET TO HEAD SOUTH

City Council on Monday approved an agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation that paves the way for construction of a four-lane, 2.3-mile extension of Peters Creek Road to Brandon Avenue.

"This is a major infrastructure improvement for our city, and I'm glad it's under way," Mayor David Bowers said after the 7-0 vote.

In the planning stages for 10 years, the new road will take motorists from The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem on Melrose Avenue to Brandon Avenue near the entrance of the Blue Ridge Industrial Park at Aerial Way Drive.

Peters Creek Road now runs from Williamson Road to Melrose Avenue, intersecting Interstate 581 northwest of the Roanoke Regional Airport.

The project's estimated cost is $18.2 million, almost all of which will be paid by the state and federal governments. The cost for city taxpayers is estimated at $643,000.

VDOT already has awarded bids for the first leg of the new road, a stretch between Melrose and Shenandoah avenues on which construction should begin this fall. The second stretch, from Shenandoah to Brandon, should go out for bids late this year.

A separate but related project is the widening of Brandon to four lanes between Mudlick and Keagy roads. Bids for that are expected early next year.

The new road will feature a landscaped median, sidewalks, shoulders wide enough for bicyclists, and two bridges. One will cross the Roanoke River and Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks, while the other will span a spur of railroad tracks closer to Brandon. The road will have three traffic lights: at Brandon, Shenandoah, and Salem Turnpike.

It also will open up land for possible commercial development, a notion city planners are beginning to wrestle with.

"From a planning standpoint, we're going to be trying to keep this area from `stripping out' like the other section of Peters Creek," said John Marlles, director of community planning. "This road is being built to carry traffic, not to provide access to certain property."

City Public Works Director Bill Clark told council that the entire project should be finished by late 1997.

City officials say they expect the new road to carry 24,500 cars and trucks daily when it's completed and 37,260 vehicles a day by 2016.

In other action, council reversed two votes it took May 8 denying rezonings and a street closing sought by Berglund Chevrolet on Williamson Road.

The dealership is trying to expand west on land zoned residential that fronts on Maddock Road. Council at its last meeting denied the requests by a 5-2 vote, believing the rezonings were opposed by residents who live nearby.

Marlles told council Monday that nearby residents didn't object to the rezonings or to closing what is left of Maddock Road. Instead, they are concerned about two other rezonings along Noble Avenue.

The dealership has withdrawn those applications, Marlles said.