Viscose Radford Plant-Viscoe Road, Bridge

[NW Mailing List]

Bruce, thank you for adding to this subject. Others now are getting the rest 
of the story.

Bud Jeffries

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 4:21 PM
Subject: Re: Viscose Radford Plant-Viscoe Road, Bridge



> At 10:12 PM -0500 1/25/07, Bud Jeffries wrote:

>>Farmer Jeffries can not add much. Viscoe Road is the name for the access

>>road to the site now from Rte 114. The American Viscose was to build a

>>factory there after WWII and the N&W built the bridge across the New River

>>to give rail access to the proposed site. There is no reference of the

>>bridge's construction in the N&W annual reports, but a source of mine says

>>the bridge has a date of 1951 on a builders plate. I thought it was a 

>>little

>>earlier than that. The factory was never built by American Viscose because

>>of decreasing demand for its products. For the same reason, its Roanoke

>>plant closed in July 1958.

>>

>>A company, unknown to me, built the large industrial building that is 

>>there

>>now in the 1970s. AT&T took it over about 1981. Today the whole American

>>Viscose site is an industrial park, a housing subdivision and golf course.

>>The old RR bridge is being used to extend utilities to that area.

>

> I'm a little behind in reading email, but I finally found some time to go 

> through my old clips from my days as a reporter with the Radford News 

> Journal. I found one article, excerpted below, that covers the plant in 

> Fairlawn in Pulaski County, across the river from Radford.

>

> The land was originally for a new American Viscose plant to be built in 

> the late '40s. In anticipation of this, the N&W extended a branch from the 

> east end of Radford yard, crossing the New River on a substantial trestle. 

> Although the line was graded on the plant site, the tracks never extended 

> past the end of the bridge.  FMC Corporation (which I claim was a 

> subsidiary of American Viscose; there is/was some connection) built a 

> textile plant on the site in 1971. When FMC divested its fiber operations, 

> Avtex Fibers was formed to purchase the holdings through a leveraged 

> buyout. The plant was closed in September, 1979, and sat vacant until 

> March, 1980, when Western Electric purchased the site for a manufacturing 

> facility. The plant was again left vacant in the late '80s when AT&T shut 

> down operations.

>

> While TerraServer and Google Earth are nice, there is a better alternative 

> for many localities in Virginia. The Commonwealth of Virginia did its own 

> aerial photography in 2002, much of it in high resolution. Localities have 

> access to the data and many have put it on their web sites as part of 

> their GIS system. Pulaski County has a site at 

> http://arcims2.webgis.net/pulaski/default.asp  Click on the small map to 

> move to and zoom in on the horseshoe bend in Fairlawn where the plant is 

> located. Click to activate the "VGIN Orthophotography" and you will get a 

> photo underlayerment once you have zoomed in close enough. Zoom in real 

> close and you can see the structure of the trestle as a shadow cast on the 

> New River. You can also see the graded right of way into the plant site, 

> plus other features.

>

> While trying to track down some details about Avtex/FMC/American Viscose, 

> I found a lot of information about the Avtex plant in Front Royal, now a 

> Superfund site to clean up years of polution.  One interesting site (which 

> includes a detailed description of the manufacturing process) is the one 

> about Jim Brewer and his friends and construction of a large HO model 

> railroad in Glenwood, Maryland, based on a part of the Shenandoah 

> Division.

>

> Bruce in Blacksburg

>

> ----------

> Radford News Journal, October 28, 1979

>

> Avtex Fibers officials busy looking for a new tenant

>

> By BRUCE HARPER

> Staff Writer

>

> One month ago, Avtex Fibers closed the doors at its plant in Fairlawn, 

> putting 330 people out of work.

>

> Since the closing, Avtex officials have been busy collecting information 

> and making contacts in an effort to find a new tenant for the 500,000 

> square foot facility.

>

> The site in Fairlawn is in a horseshoe of the New River. It was purchased 

> by the American Viscose Company in 1946 as a site for expansion of its 

> operations. Some site work was done and a rail connection with the Norfolk 

> and Western Railroad was arranged, but the plant was never built.

>

> The 750 acres of land remained with American Viscose and on October 19, 

> 1971, plans for a new factory on the site were announced. The plant was 

> built for FMC, a subsidiary of American Viscose.

>

> In 1976, the plant became a part of Avtex as FMC redeployed capital to 

> other operations with high growth potential.

>

> When the original plans for a plant were made, the decision to build in 

> Radford was made because of the New River water supply, the labor market 

> and the Norfolk and Western main line.

>

> In 1946, a bridge was built across the New River by the N and W and 

> American Viscose. The line ran from the east end of the Radford rail yard 

> across a steel trestle, which is stin standing, and onto the Viscose 

> property.

>

> According to Don Piedmont, a spokesman for the N and W, the line was never 

> put in service. The grade up to the bridge is still visible, but the rails 

> and ties have been taken up. Ties and tie plates are still on the bridge, 

> but no rails. A large iron plate was erected to keep trespassers from 

> crossing the bridge to the Avtex property.

>

> ---------------

> Avtex Fibers

> Partners Mend Site, Sew Quilt of Future Uses

>

> The Avtex Fibers plant was at one time the world's largest producer of 

> rayon - an instrumental product for NASA's space shuttle program and for 

> parachutes and jump suits made for the Department of War during World War 

> II. While the plant enjoyed a proud history producing important 

> commodities for the nation and employing thousands of local citizens, it 

> also left behind a legacy of contamination and blighted property on the 

> banks of the Shenandoah River. Since its closing in 1989, community, 

> business, and government partners have worked tirelessly to reverse the 

> damage and redevelop the site for future generations to enjoy.

>

> For more than 45 years, the 440-acre Avtex Fibers plant manufactured 

> rayon, polyester, and polypropylene fibers for commercial, defense, and 

> space industries. It employed over 2,500 people in the area. From 1940 

> through 1962, American Viscose owned the facility and FMC Corporation 

> (FMC) owned the plant from 1963 until 1976. In 1976, Avtex Fibers, Inc. 

> purchased the site from FMC and continued manufacturing operations until 

> 1989, when Avtex closed the plant and declared bankruptcy. In June 1986, 

> the site was listed on the Superfund program's National Priorities List.

>

> http://www.epa.gov/superfund/accomp/success/avtex.htm

>

> -----------

> Jim Brewer and friends are building a large HO model railroad in Glenwood, 

> Maryland. The layout follows the prototypical Norfolk and Western Railroad 

> along the Shenandoah River in Virginia in the 1956 period.

>

> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rdaniels2/Index.htm

>

> ----------

>

> Movementech works with groups to develop in depth analysis of the context 

> of the situation in which they are organizing. One of the key components 

> of this type of research is analysis of their opponents: typically 

> corporations advancing their own business interests.

>

> http://www.movementech.org/gis/pdf/avtexreport.pdf

>

> -----------------

>

> Once Virginia's largest Superfund site, this former rayon manufacturing 

> facility is being recovered to provide a 175 acre eco-friendly office 

> park, 30 acres of soccer fields, and 240 acres of conservancy park along 

> the Shenandoah River. This Web site provides current information to 

> interested parties concerning the redevelopment progress of the Avtex 

> Fibers Superfund Site in Front Royal, Virginia.

>

> http://www.avtexfibers.com/

>

> ---------------

> U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) site with photos

> http://www.nao.usace.army.mil/Projects/Environmental%20Projects/Avtex/homepage.asp

>

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