ROANOKE TIMES  
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996                 TAG: 9605160141
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE AND ALAN KIM
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
      Published correction ran on May 17, 1996.
         A map on Thursday's New River Current front incorrectly labeled the 
      now-closed Spring Road as Stadium Road.

SPRINGING UP ON SPRING ROAD

This time next year, sports playing fields will have sprouted in the wake of the closed Spring Road, which cuts through Virginia Tech's campus southwest of the Drillfield. Bulldozers are rumbling along, hard at work on the following:

A $425,000 women's softball field, paid for by student athletic fees.

Track and soccer fields, a $1.6 million project paid for by contributions.

Practice football fields, a $300,000 chunk of the budget of a $20.5 million student health and recreation building, paid out of student fees. Ground for the new building will be broken this fall, and it will be located partially on the location of the old football practice fields.

A rerouted Spring Road will reopen sometime in the future, say university officials. That project will coincide with construction on Southgate Drive.

LENGTH: Short :   31 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   1. map of area.  color
          2. color photo   ALAN KIM STAFF