
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993                   TAG: 9309150008
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOO NEW TO LAST FOR LONG

The newly paved road is a thing to behold, even when you don't count the far-reaching economic impact of the hardtop lane, without which getting ripe tomatoes to market becomes a risky venture because one ill-timed rainstorm can make the road from the farm to the city impassably muddy, stranding farmer at the farm with a truckload of ripe 'maters, which are worthless rotting in the bed of a pickup and why, next year, farmer will grow cotton because it isn't so prone to rotting as tomatoes.

No, don't even count that.

Just think about the aesthetics of the freshly paved road.

That unblemished black asphalt with the bright yellow striping, free of seams and divots, can make even a ratty old junker drive like a luxury sedan.

There's a lot of paving going on in Roanoke, and everywhere, this time of year. You can't drive far without detecting the aromatic bouquet of liquid, petroleum-based asphalt.

Not two weeks ago, Campbell Avenue in Roanoke was paved from Fifth Street west for eight blocks. It's a heavily trafficked stretch of road through the West End, thick morning and eve with commuters from points south and west.

They endured a week or so of road scraping and scoring and lane closings before being rewarded with the smooth coat of asphalt.

But new roads, like records, were made to be broken.

On Monday, a city crew parked on the satiny Campbell and commenced to jackhammer the bejabbers out of that new surface near Seventh Street. Through the new asphalt blasted the power tools, opening a gaping crater the size of a large conference table.

They could not resist, apparently, seeing such a virgin road surface.

The city keeps no official records, but seasoned observers are convinced that the 11 or so days between the final paving and the first busting-up of the street may be unparalleled in the history of Roanoke.

Seems a water valve box - a cast-iron box below ground - was scrunched during the paving.

What's good for the ratty old junker is not necessarily good for the water lines, and vice versa. We robbed Peter, paid Paul and ended up with a smooth road with a hole in it.

"It's possible," said Jack Lanford, the chairman of Adams Construction Co., "that our roller crushed the box."

Monday's crew was repairing the box, backfilling the hole with gravel. Each passing vehicle sparks an eruption of stones from the conference-table-sized pothole.

The erupted stones will be swept, the hole will be patched with asphalt.

But forever - or until the next paving comes due in a decade or so, whichever comes first - we'll have those seams, that hump, that patch. It's a scar on the satin.

That's a high price to pay for a Roanoke record - 11 days from perfection to a hole in the road.

by CNB