ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160045
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
Taxpayers would fund part of a new access road to support a $14 million expansion of Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. under a plan going before Roanoke City Council today.
The company wants the city to seek up to $450,000 from the state for a two-lane road between company property and the extension of Peters Creek Road, which is under construction on the city's west side.
The project, when complete, would shift much of the traffic to and from the mill out of an adjacent residential area where it has long been a sore point among residents.
All Roanoke Electric Steel traffic, including tractor-trailers loaded with steel, currently uses Westside Boulevard, which is bounded on both sides by the 200-unit West Creek Manor apartments. Westside intersects Shenandoah Avenue near Roanoke's boundary with Salem.
About 74 percent of the steel company's traffic would be diverted from Westside if the new road were built, said Donald G. Smith, Roanoke Electric Steel chairman and chief executive.
Smith said his estimate is based on traffic in October, the latest month for which statistics are available. Company employees' vehicles, delivery vehicles and trucks hauling finished goods made 6,000 to 7,000 trips that month on Westside. If the new road were open, Westside would have been used for 4,800 fewer trips, Smith said.
City Manager Bob Herbert said the road should qualify for public funding because Roanoke Electric Steel is spending $14 million to add a third furnace and make other improvements to raise its steel output 15 percent to 18 percent.
The new furnace goes on line this spring. But the Commonwealth Transportation Board can't rule on a request from the city until at least March 21, meaning the road might not be finished until after production - and traffic - pick up.
West Creek Manor would welcome a reduction in the number of heavy trucks.
"I watch the children getting off the bus every day, and my heart is in my mouth," said Eunice Sherffield, assistant manager of the apartment complex.
Phil Sparks, chief of economic development for the city, said he does not know of any opposition to council's asking the Virginia Department of Transportation for the road funds. The state has repeatedly paid for roads that provide access to private industrial facilities.
The taxpayer-funded section of the road would connect to a new private driveway that Roanoke Electric Steel would pay for.
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