The change will impact 460 from I-81 until just before the Southgate Drive traffic light and again from just past that light an additional four miles. Approximately 12 miles will be affected.
The change is a result of Senate Bill 408 that passed through the General Assembly back in 2004. That particular law enables VDOT to conduct engineering surveys to make sure the speed limit is appropriate.
According to the VDOT press release, "VDOT examined the alignment of the road, spacing of interchanges, design speed and crash history to determine that 65 mph was an acceptable speed for the Route 460 Bypass around Christiansburg and Blacksburg."
"The new law allowed us to look at certain roads to see if the speed limits needed to be changed. In the case of 460 Bypass around Christiansburg and Blacksburg, we found no safety reasons why the speed limit couldn't be increased," said VDOT's Jason Bond.
Bond said that the motivation for doing it was simply to find the most appropriate speed limit given safety concerns.
Also according to the press release, signs were to go up by Aug. 1, weather permitting. The signs were posted well before that date.
The speed limit change comes as welcome news for many Blacksburg residents and Virginia Tech students.
"I'm really psyched that the speed limit has increased," said first year veterinary student Greg Swieter. "I always feel like I have to hit the brakes as soon as I get off of I-81. I'm going so slowly that it feels like I'm crawling. Now I can just keep on cruising."
Of course with the high cost of gasoline, fast driving is costing motorists extra. That combined with the higher speed limit will likely decrease the number of speeding tickets issued on 460.
You might be interested in... speed limit, 460
