Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 20, 1995 TAG: 9506200087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A telltale sign of Northern Virginia-type sprawl is about to debut in the Roanoke Valley.
A concrete sound wall - that monument to the American Commuter, that totem of urban transportation - will appear as part of the Peters Creek Road extension.
You may have seen them along Interstate 66 and other asphalt arteries leading to the nation's capital. These barriers spare nearby residents from the honks, backfires, subwoofers and other melodies of the modern highway.
Roanoke's wall will stand 10 to 12 feet high and run about half a mile between Shenandoah Avenue and Salem Turnpike, said Scott Hodge, assistant resident engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
"Basically, all it is is a concrete wall. It's nothing fancy," Hodge said.
But Mimi Coles says it doesn't have to be just a concrete wall. A local saleswoman for a Bristol manufacturer of concrete products, Coles has been leading a behind-the-scenes, one-woman crusade for what she calls "a maintenance-free, graffiti-proof, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly" alternative.
It goes by the trade name "Evergreen Wall" and looks like giant concrete window boxes stacked on top of one another. Pictures in her brochures show daisies, ivy, juniper and other vegetation spilling over the sides, virtually hiding the gray concrete.
Designed in Switzerland, they've been used extensively throughout Europe. Here in the United States, Coles said, they've been used for sound walls in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
A number of businesses in Southwest Virginia also have used them for retaining walls, including the Steak & Ale restaurant on Electric Road.
"I want to make the sale," Coles admits. But there's another reason she has pitched the idea to VDOT, the city, the contractors, the mayor and, finally, the newspaper.
"Daggone it, I've got to drive down the road and look at it," she said. "With Roanoke concerned about future development, and all the talk about greenways ... I would just hate to see things start looking like a concrete jungle."
\ New roads funded with federal money must meet certain standards for such things as air quality, energy use and noise abatement, Hodge said. Washington is picking up almost all of the $18.2 million bill for the road.
After studying the location of the four-lane road, the terrain, the volume of traffic and number and proximity of homes, state engineers determined that a wall was needed on the east side.
In 20 years, the traffic on the new extension will equal the traffic now on the Roy L. Weber Highway at the Elm Avenue exit, Hodge said.
VDOT has allocated $707,300 for the wall. English Construction Co. in Altavista won the bid as prime contractor, offering the "Evergreen" wall as one of several alternatives, said John Jordan, vice president of the company.
"We thought it was possible for the job, that it would meet cost," Jordan said.
Coles says the "Evergreen" wall would cost $460,000, plus another $157,500 for installation.
English subcontracted the wall and other work to Branch Highways Inc. in Roanoke. It's now up to Branch to choose, and that's where Coles ran into a wall of another sort.
"We've been talking with Branch, trying to appeal to their civic sense. They really don't care," she said.
Tom Partridge, vice president at Branch, said he isn't going to build an "Evergreen" wall, because materials would cost at least 60 percent more than a traditional barrier. And besides, he said, it's untested in Virginia.
True, but VDOT has approved the concept, Hodge said, and if the city wants the "Evergreen" wall, it will have to pay any cost overrun.
Bob Bengsten, city traffic engineer, said the city is reviewing it, but the bottom line remains cost.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***