Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990 TAG: 9006260379
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Public Works Director Adele Schirmer will present details of the project at the Town Council meeting scheduled for 7:30 tonight.
The plan calls for two varieties of maple trees along the street, evergreens, flowers and decorative grasses growing on the slopes, shrubbery and annuals at each intersection, Hokie stone inlays in the center lane and bus plazas.
"It's an exciting project," Schirmer said. "It has the potential of being a unique project to the area - a public-private landscaping project of this scope."
She said the estimated $400,000 to landscape 1.4 miles of South Main Street, now under construction, amounts to more money spent per mile than is spent on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Donations from private sources would make up 70 percent of the cost.
No other community, including Roanoke, has such a grandly landscaped entrance that she knows of, Schirmer said.
"Once complete, it will make a statement about entering Blacksburg. It will say Blacksburg is a special place," she said.
Roughly 90 percent of incoming traffic enters Blacksburg from the south along U.S. 460, which turns into South Main Street at the town limit, Schirmer said.
The project will also help heal the town's spirit, bruised last year when the issue of whether to have raised medians or a center turning lane pitted citizen against citizen.
Some wanted raised, landscaped medians, which they said would be safer and prettier.
Others, primarily business owners along South Main Street, said a central turning lane would be safer, cutting down on the number of U-turns. They also were concerned that medians would deter drivers from turning in to their businesses.
Transportation studies show that medians and turning lanes are equally safe.
After several heated debates during public hearings last fall, Council stuck with its decision of three years ago for the turning lane.
But town staff came up with a compromise plan in which the sides of the road would be landscaped, and other design features in the road such as the inlays of Hokie stone (so named because it's the material with which a number of Virginia Tech buildings have been constructed) and striped crosswalks would address safety concerns.
"I really think we should all work together because it is the main entrance to Blacksburg," said Fleta Dowdy, whose home is the only residence along the stretch of road being widened.
"I just think the street's going to look real pretty."
Construction to widen the street from three to five lanes should be finished this year, and planting could begin as early as next spring, Schirmer said.
But that depends on efforts to raise $277,000 from Blacksburg businesses, civic groups and citizens. The town will contribute the remaining money.
A committee composed of the town's economic development coordinator, a South Main Street business owner and a member of the Townscape Committee worked with the consultant, Hill Studio PC in Roanoke, on the plans and will start fund-raising soon.
Schirmer said most of the 35 landowners along the stretch of road have agreed orally to grant easements, which would hold the town responsible for maintaining vegetation on the strips of private property.
"I don't think too many people will turn us down," Schirmer said. She also said several people and businesses have pledged financial support.
by CNB