ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 29, 1996 TAG: 9611290012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
A horde of Hokies, 'Hoos and holiday shoppers will either descend upon or pass through Christiansburg's commercial corridor in record numbers today.
Attribute that to the game - the biggest in Virginia Tech's 101-year-old rivalry with the University of Virginia - and to the day, the biggest shopping day of the year.
For football fans, the traffic plan should mean a fast pass through Christiansburg and into Lane Stadium.
For shoppers trying to cross U.S. 460 to visit stores, however, the game traffic could mean delays and backups along Peppers Ferry Road especially during the peak pregame and postgame hours: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5:30-7:30 p.m.
About 80,000 cars are expected to drive down U.S. 460 today: 25,000 more than a typical Friday, making for the most traffic ever on this busy strip.
Retailers at New River Valley Mall are a little unsure what impact the Tech game will have on "Black Friday," the name retailers jokingly bestow upon the day after Thanksgiving when the holiday shopping rush begins.
"We're not sure," said Mike Poldiak, manager of the 60-store mall. "About half the retailers think it'll hurt, half think it'll help. If business drops Friday, we still have Saturday and Sunday. It should be a big weekend."
The mall opens at 7 a.m. today - three hours earlier than usual - and closes at 10 p.m., an hour late.
The state Department of Transportation will have a staff of 10 setting up and monitoring a traffic control system that turns U.S. 460, from the bypass around Christiansburg to the bypass at Blacksburg, into a vehicle hallway with no left turns allowed, other than at the Peppers Ferry Road intersection.
Traffic signals at the Peppers Ferry Road junction, home to the New River Valley Mall and a sprawl of other commercial development, will operate as usual, albeit at an altered pace.
A normal green light on U.S. 460 runs about two minutes. When traffic starts to build, that will be bumped up to five minutes today. Highway officials have kept the light green as long as seven minutes.
A green signal on U.S 460 means a red one for those waiting on Peppers Ferry Road. For those backed up on that cross road, the green signal will be only one minute long, depending on the traffic. The green left turn signal from U.S. 460 onto Peppers Ferry will run one to two minutes.
"We'll do our best to monitor," said Dan Brugh, a resident engineer with the Department of Transportation's Christiansburg office. He will keep tabs on the situation from a Virginia State Police helicopter. "We'll adjust signal timings as necessary. If traffic starts to back down the Christiansburg bypass, we'll add more green time on 460."
Travelers can tune to 1610 AM for any changes.
For those shoppers who can't get enough shopping Friday, at least they will have two more shopping days to the weekend. The New River Valley Mall is planning longer hours again on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB