ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703100079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SERIES: Southwest Virginia's Lifeline
First of a two-part series
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
At Fort Chiswell, one mile west of where Interstate 81 meets Interstate 77, a herd of black cows peppers the wheat-colored hillside.
Provided you keep your eyes on the horizon, the scene's bucolic; the land rolls and there's lots of it.
It's when your eye drops below the horizon that things get busy.
The pasture land is framed to the south by a building from which Lynn Goforth has been selling tractors since 1967. Next door to Goforth's is a McDonald's. To the east lies a junkyard. Farther down sit a few mobile homes.
At best, the mix at I-81's exit 80 is eclectic. At worst, it's random.
In contrast, Exit 109, the future site of the new Carilion Radford Hospital, could be an example of planned growth.
Right now, the land is undeveloped farmland. Plans call for a 97-bed hospital on the southeast corner of I-81's intersection with Virginia 177, with medical offices on the north side. Construction began in February and should be finished by October 1998.
Montgomery County Planner Joe Powers said the county sees the interchange as a development test, of sorts. The land around it is owned by a handful of people, making control of its development easier.
"Hopefully, we can do a better job," Powers said. "Time will tell."
I-81 plays a major role in the New River Valley's development, according to Don Moore, Montgomery County's former economic development director. Much of this influence is pinned to the demand for quick delivery that puts so many trucks on the road. The presence of so much 18-wheel traffic prompted the Virginia Department of Transportation's chief engineer to call I-81 a mobile warehouse.
I-81 has opened towns like Christiansburg to a much larger market, said town planner Rudy Rash. A bigger market means more travelers, which means more shoppers. The reverse has also been true, as towns without direct interstate access, such as Pulaski and Narrows, have seen their population level off or decline after the road's early 1970s completion.
Like the railroad before it and the Wilderness Trail before that, I-81 is the New River Valley's Main Street and one of the major gears driving the valley economy.
Expansion at exits
Fifteen exits span the New River Valley's 48 mile-stretch of I-81 - from Elliston to Fort Chiswell as the interstate passes through Montgomery and Pulaski counties and into neighboring Wythe County. Three of the exits are heavily developed.
In the next 15 years, exits in Montgomery County at Falling Branch Road and the "smart" road will add two more to the list. The smart road interchange will be similar to I-581 in Roanoke - a limited entryway to and from I-81 - and likely won't sprout commercial development, planners say.
The Falling Branch Road exit, now home to an elementary school, will have the county's new industrial park on the south side of I-81- one of a handful in Western Virginia visible from the interstate. The exit is expected to be finished by 1999.
In the next 20 years, state highway officials say the 30-year-old interstate will need an estimated $2billion expansion. Age, higher-than-expected traffic and rapid growth in Western Virginia are cited as reasons. Since 1970, I-81 traffic in rural areas has doubled; near cities, it has tripled.
Worsening the road's load is this: four of every 10 vehicles on I-81 are trucks.
An industry essential
Of the 35 to 40 serious business prospects Montgomery County's Economic Development Office hosts each year, most consider I-81 a major factor, Moore said.
"Transportation is really important," he said. "And an interstate is the most desirable. It's just one of the assets that makes a community attractive to companies looking and helps those already here."
The county's 165-acre Falling Branch Industrial Park is generating a lot of interest, Moore said, in part because 2,500 of its 7million square feet will front on I-81.
"It helps," Moore said. "It's interstate visibility. It helps enhance and develop a company's image. Some companies won't even look at sites that aren't on an interstate."
The interstate exit at Ironto could also see a busy next decade. Lancer Truck Stop owner Henry Brabham is paying the $407,000 estimated cost for the Public Service Authority to extend sewer service to the intersection, most of which is zoned agricultural.
In the next five years, Brabham said, a fast-food outlet will go up at the intersection and possibly a motel and expanded truck stop, too.
Wythe County, home to Fort Chiswell, and on the edge of the New River Valley, has no zoning laws. The growth along its part of I-81 has come on a first-come, first-build basis.
"As long as you don't have zoning, you don't have true control," said Benny Burkett, executive director of the Joint Industrial Development Authority of Wythe County.
"I don't care if it's zoning or whatever, we need a plan of orderly development. Without zoning, you're just reacting to whatever comes along."
Burkett estimates 75 percent of his county's recent growth is tied to the interstate. The county is extending sewer service to its eastern corner, which should stimulate more development, he said.
Excluding U.S.220, Rash said, every road that runs from the Roanoke Valley to Tennessee and North Carolina comes through his town - Christiansburg.
The road's impact is easy to measure for Pulaski County native Rash.
"When I was growing up, a trip to Roanoke was an all-day trip, going and coming," he said. "Now, it's like a little trip."
"The interstate has certainly made the area more accessible to industry," Rash said. "Take the Christiansburg Industrial Park [off U.S.460 at I-81]. It's within eyesight of a major interchange, which makes it attractive to any business needing that kind of access."
Peter Huber, assistant county administrator in Pulaski County, said the interstate is less of a driving force in Pulaski's economy. Less than half of the new development in his county is spurred by the county's four I-81 exits.
"I-81 has always been a a factor," he said. "It's just that the growth there has been more visible in the last 10 years. When sewer was put in there eight or nine years ago is when things really took off."
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Truck stop alley isby CNBjust one area of major development along I-81 (ran on NRV-1). 2.
Development along Interstate 81 at Fort Chiswell has turned the area
into a bustling commercial center almost overnight. color. 3. 1969
File photo. Work on Interstate I-81 at Christiansburg Mountain in
1969. Graphic: Color map.