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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994                   TAG: 9403170149
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Short

RADFORD NORTHBOUND EXIT FROM I-81 TO BE CLOSED

One of the two Radford exits off Interstate 81, northbound exit 105, will be closed for the next two months, the Virginia Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

Supports on the bridge over I-81 just past the New River have been cracking for a while, project engineer Arlin Surratt said. "It's been in the making one or two years, anyway," he said.

When concrete cracks,salt enters, and when it hits the steel, "it pops the concrete off," Surratt said.

Crews will chip concrete off the road surface and supports, and replace it with latex concrete. VDOT contracted the repairs to a firm that will employ roughly a half-dozen workers on the bridge.

While the department tries to keep exits open when possible - and Surratt said he couldn't remember one in the area being closed before - closing 105 seemed the best way to repair the bridge, he said.

Radford City Councilman David Worrell said he worried that truck traffic from Radford's industrial park would now go through downtown. Exit 109 is still open.

by CNB