ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702170065
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
A 90-acre interchange, reminiscent of one of Atlanta's famous concrete tangles, will soon pave over the site of Dave Reynolds' auto shop, spinning cars onto a new bypass toward Christiansburg and eventually down the "smart" road.
Faced with the news that the Virginia Department of Transportation was routing the interchange through his South Main Auto repair shop parking lot, Reynolds fussed a little, then planned a lot. Now, his successful but plan-as-you-go business has its first employee manual, a business plan and budgets through the end of the millennium.
Reynolds' rented shop is one of 17 businesses forced to move to make room for a massive interchange (top photo on next page) that will connect the smart road, 3A, U.S. 460 and the Blacksburg Bypass. The interchange will extend from north of the Comfort Inn on U.S. 460 to just north of 2727 South Main St. in Blacksburg.
This sprawling cloverleaf is one of four major interchanges that the state will build in Blacksburg and Christiansburg over the next four years as part of three intertwined road projects.
Two of the projects will extend the U.S. 460 Bypass around Christiansburg's commercial corridor and add a direct link for the bypass to Interstate 81. The link will create a large interchange at Falling Branch Road (top photo on Page 23), site of the county's major new industrial park. The other two interchanges will be in Christiansburg at Peppers Ferry Road (bottom photos on Page 23) in the commercial heart of Montgomery County and at North Franklin Street (above) where the current U.S. 460 Bypass ends. The third project is the smart road.
Cost of the projects will exceed $148.5 million.
The Blacksburg interchange is the largest of the four intersections because it is the departure point not only for Alternative 3A - the U.S. 460 Bypass Connector - but also for the smart road, that is planned to connect Blacksburg directly into I-81. Construction is expected to begin this summer on the road, designed as a test bed for smart vehicle technology.
To accommodate the maze of ramps and bridges, Reynolds' auto repair shop will move a mile north on South Main from its existing site next to Hokie Honda. With the new site, Reynolds, 38, plans to double the number of repair bays to 12. He also hopes to add four employees and, eventually, stay open later.
"Ultimately, this is for the better. I needed the extra room anyway," Reynolds said. "Blacksburg's such a good place for business. Mine's gone up every year for eight years until recently. It only flattened because I ran out of space."
The state started buying land in the area in July 1995. As of early February, just two businesses have yet to agree on a purchase price: Hokie Honda and State Farm Insurance's Auto Claims Service Center.
About $5 million has been spent so far to buy 80 acres at the site of the smart road/3A interchange. About half of that money went to Vijay Idnani, the owner of the 48-room Budget Host Inn, perched on a knoll above the existing interchange. Idnani also owned a 24-unit apartment building nearby.
He now owns a Vermont Inn in Benton, Ark., southwest of Little Rock.
Property owners and tenants are entitled to money and assistance when forced to move because of a state road project.
A businessman like Reynolds who rents his property is eligible for up to $10,000 to help reestablish his business.
Owners have their property appraised by the state and the price independently approved. The amount is used as a starting point to negotiate a sale price. Property owners who don't agree to a price can have the issue settled in circuit court. In the meantime, eminent domain allows the state to take the property and proceed with the project.
The interchange also will have a dyslexic effect on several Blacksburg businesses - such as South Main Commons and 2727 South Main. When the new interchange is built, the office complex's front doors will become their back yards.
An on-ramp paralleling South Main Street will block off the businesses' present entrance so interchange traffic can merge at high speed into South Main Street.
Instead, traffic bound for those businesses will be routed down an as-yet-unnamed service road, now called Service Road F. The proposed road will start just past 2727 South Main, wrap behind the office complexes and connect to Prosperity Drive.
This poses problems for the businesses, including lighting, signs, building entrances and landscaping all oriented towards South Main Street. The state also plans to run a 6-foot high chain-link fence between the on-ramp and the office complex parking lots.
Local architect Bob Rogers works in South Main Commons and heads its Owners Association. (Both South Main Commons and 2727 South Main are commercial condominium complexes. In most cases the buildings are owned by their occupants.)
As an architect, Rogers is trained to think in terms of design and space. So the idea of the chain-link fence rankles him as does the landscaping, lighting and overall building design, all geared toward South Main Street, that eventually will be less efficient.
Another business owner who will be displaced by the interchange is developer Jeanne Stosser. Her office is in the "eye" of the interchange, just between South Main Street and Ramble Road. The $400,000 being offered by the state will not compensate her for the property being lost, Stosser says.
But she also is using the forced relocation as a business opportunity, buying nearby property on Ramble Road where she and an adjacent landowner plan a major development including apartments, townhouses and businesses near the Corporate Research Center. Local developer William Price also is planning a residential and commercial project across Ramble Road.
The huge Blacksburg interchange has started changing the landscape even though it will be two years before construction begins. Mongomery Highway Projects Project Begin construction Completion Length Const. cost Land cost Alt. 3A Bypass Possibly end '98 2001 3 miles $65 m $27 m Falling Branch* Sept '97 1999 3/4 mile $35+ m $7 m "Smart" road July 1997 Fall 1999 First 1.7 miles $12 m $2.5 m
* Includes widening 3 1/2 miles of Interstate 81 from Exit 118 to Falling Branch to be completed by 2000-1
SOURCE: Virginia Department of Transportation
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. A VDOT computer simulation shows what the Northby CNBFranklin Street interchange in Christiansburg will look like when 3A
is built (ran on NRV-1). 2. A Virginia Department of Transportation
computer simulation (below) shows what the North Franklin Street
interchange in Christiansburg will look like when 3A is built. 3.
What the same intersectionat the U.S. 460 Bypass looks like now
(right). 4. A computer simulation (left) shows the South Main Street
interchange in Blacksburg, which will connect the "smart" road, 3A,
U.S. 460 and U.S. 460 Business. 5. What's there now. 6. Alan Kim.
Dave Reynolds, standing in front of his South Main Auto Shop, will
move his shop one mile north on South Main Street to make way for
the new interchange. color. Graphic. Map by staff. color.