ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
The Roanoke city administration wants to scrap long-held plans to connect 10th Street Northwest to Valley View Boulevard in favor of building a partial interchange along I-581 for Wal-Mart and Valley View shoppers.
If acceptable to the City Planning Commission, City Council and the Virginia Department of Transportation, the new plan essentially would rule out a multimillion-dollar connection of 10th Street to Valley View Boulevard via Andrews Road, a longtime backup plan for an alternate route to the mall area.
But whether it ever happens depends on how willing VDOT is to take on a major upgrade of Interstate 581 in the Valley View-Hershberger Road area, city officials said.
The subject arose during a City Council meeting Monday, when some council members questioned if the interchange would be built and when.
``I'm really appalled that with all the construction and new stores opening in that area ... that this project seems like it's going to be ongoing for the rest of our lives,'' Councilman Mac McCadden said.
The area already is experiencing late-afternoon traffic jams as a result of Wal-Mart's opening, and it's only going to get worse, McCadden added.
The city has borrowed $5 million to pay for a partial interchange, but federal highway officials have turned down its request to build one about a mile south of Hershberger Road - even if city taxpayers pick up the entire tab.
However, the Federal Highway Administration would consider approving the interchange if VDOT agrees to long-range improvements to I-581 in the Valley View area, Public Works Director William Clark told council.
The first step in winning VDOT's approval is for the city to formally ask VDOT to incorporate an I-581 upgrade in its six-year plan for highway improvements in the Roanoke area.
That request will come before the Roanoke Planning Commission today and City Council on March 18. It will go to VDOT on April 2.
The city administration also will ask the Planning Commission and council to delete from the Roanoke City Thoroughfare Plan an old plan to connect 10th Street Northwest and Andrews Road to Valley View Boulevard. That connection won't be needed if the partial interchange on I-581 is approved.
The thoroughfare plan is a list of road upgrades, ranked by priority and requested by the city, that VDOT uses in appropriating money for city road projects each year.
If both bodies approve the amendment to the thoroughfare plan, ``then [the 10th Street-Andrews-Valley View] connection could not occur,'' city traffic engineer Bob Bengtson said.
But abandoning the connection is unlikely to change long-term plans to widen 1.7 miles of 10th Street between Gilmer Avenue and Williamson Road, Bengtson said.
Residents in the 10th Street corridor late last year discovered those plans, which have been on the city books for more than a decade and slowly moving up a list arranged by priority.
They feared that widening 10th Street to three or four lanes would require taking homes in the predominantly black neighborhood.
``People have been displaced so many times,'' said the Rev. Clinton Scott, co-president of the Washington Park Alliance, a 10th Street area neighborhood organization that opposed a widening last fall. ``Most of these people are elderly people - they're too old to be uprooted and moved around again,'' Scott said.
Scott said he hopes the city would consider installing sidewalks and curbs in the 10th Street corridor rather than adding a lane or two.
Bengtson said it hasn't been decided what a major expansion of I-581 in the Valley View area would look like, nor have cost estimates been prepared.
One proposal would entail building separate two-lane service roads parallel to the highway on both the east and west sides for traffic entering and leaving I-581 from the new interchange and Hershberger Road, Bengtson said.
But it's unlikely that system would be built until after the new interchange. Clark told council on Monday he hopes the city can win federal approval for it by the end of this year.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: map showing location of proposed partial interchangeby CNBcolor STAFF