ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150021
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PRICES FORK
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
A road-widening project on Prices Fork Road has frayed the nerves of business operators and residents.
The construction has caused irritating traffic delays this summer, led to decreased business and just doesn't seem to be getting anywhere, some have complained.
But the contractor handling the work and a Virginia Department of Transportation official say the work is on schedule and there's little room to work faster with wet-weather delays and no available detours.
Since August 1995, a construction crew has been working to straighten and widen a 1.8-mile stretch of road and add bike lanes west of Blacksburg between A&J Quick Shop and Cox's Gold Driving Range Putt-A-Round & Batting Cages.
Near the end of July, Mike McCoy had had enough.
The owner of M&M Tire had seen his business decline over the last several weeks as the road work centered in front of his business.
The final week of July, McCoy noticed a considerable drop in business - usually a busy time of the month because state inspections for vehicles come due.
Construction equipment and workers were piled in front of his business, but McCoy said, they didn't "seem to be accomplishing a whole lot."
He said he heard "a lot of complaints from my customers" and from people who "sit as much as 30 minutes in the evening" stalled in traffic delays.
Some customers told him they would come to his shop when absolutely necessary, but had begun taking back ways in to Blacksburg and would get car-repair work done elsewhere.
"It just seems to be dragging out so slow and we have had a lot of customers complain," McCoy said.
Kay Palmer, who lives in the Millstone Ridge subdivision, remembers sitting in stopped traffic for 20 minutes on her way into town and on her way back one day.
"My biggest beef is ... I don't think they need to make us wait and back up traffic as long as they do," she said.
Palmer describes herself as a housewife who only needs to drive to go to Kroger or into town for appointments. She eventually found an alternate route into town, but said she always preferred Prices Fork Road because she thought it was safer.
"I don't have to use this road. I feel sorry for people that come ... from Radford and Peppers Ferry Road. These people have to get to work every day," and back home, Palmer said. "You can just see the frustration on people's faces. They want to get home. They're tired."
Palmer said she also feels sorry for the workers who hold the signs telling motorists to stop as she's sure they've received more than a few nasty comments or gestures from motorists.
McCoy finally took action. He called Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, to complain. In short order, some VDOT supervisors came to visit and talked with the construction crew, McCoy said.
The situation has "been a lot better. I'm really pleased," McCoy said last week.
Dan Brugh, VDOT's resident engineer at its Christiansburg office, says the work is still on schedule.
"It's not going as fast as we would like it to go," admits Brugh.
But the contractor, Alleghany Construction Co., still has time on its 180-day contract. The $1.34 million project's estimated completion date is September, with days added in for bad weather and other delays that could push the completion into late October or early November.
"We have received complaints about delays in traveling through Prices Fork," Brugh said. But it's hard for work to go faster when traffic is continuing to use the road, he said.
"Prices Fork's carrying about 10,000 vehicles a day," Brugh said. "This is a big project and it's a difficult one. ... "I don't think there's any way it's going to be completed in the next couple weeks or by the time school starts," Brugh said.
Andy Douthat, vice president of Alleghany Construction Co., the contractor, says the firm has about 40 days left on its contract.
"The biggest problem was we started last year and there were several utility delays," Douthat said.
Telephone, power, gas and other utilities had been notified of the project but had not moved utilities as required.
The delays in getting the utilities moved caused a domino effect. A subcontractor had been scheduled to do a lot of the paving last fall, but is now squeezing in the work. Also, the project shut down during some of the winter months.
"Right now, the project's probably about 75 percent complete. The majority of what's left is paving," Douthat said.
Edsel Gallimore lives about one mile from Riverway Grocery. He, too, has had his fill of the construction and the traffic delays.
"They have a lot of holdups and they leave big holes in the road after they quit work," Gallimore said as he scratched a lottery ticket at the store.
Those holes become mud puddles that dirty his car. To avoid the traffic delays, Gallimore said he has sometimes driven to Peppers Ferry Road to go to Blacksburg.
He sees the project as a waste of money and says the road should have been four-laned instead of just remaining a widened two-lane road with bike paths. Like McCoy, he says he can't see that the construction crew is making any headway.
"I don't know what their excuse is. I know it's rained a lot but it shouldn't have held them up that much," Gallimore said. "I've never seen a road no further than this is take this long."
About a mile the opposite way, Fred Lawson is more forgiving. He lives near the intersection of Merrimac and Prices Fork roads.
"I don't see how in the world they've gotten anything done with the weather and the traffic," Lawson said. "I couldn't condemn them because I know what they're going through."
Douthat said he wants the public to know "we're doing everything we can." And, he related the construction signs that are placed near work sites in Roanoke: "In growth, there is disorder."
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. The slow pace of work to straighten andby CNBwiden a 1.8-mile stretch of Prices Fork Road has angered some
business owners along the construction route. color.