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BLACKSBURG -- Residents usually breathe a sigh of relief when Virginia Tech students depart after graduation and traffic thins out around campus.

But not this summer. The first of several phases of construction at University City Boulevard and Prices Fork Road is set to begin the Monday after students collect their diplomas and attend their last college parties.

Town crews will start work on median changes along the boulevard that will close two lanes, Planning and Engineering Director Adele Schirmer said this week.

On June 6, the road will close completely to through-traffic from Prices Fork Road as crews connect a new sewer line under University City Boulevard.

Town Engineer Brandon Steele said he hopes to get the road reopened by June 21, depending on weather and any problems construction crews might run into.

University Mall and nearby businesses will remain open during the work and traffic will be detoured to Old Glade Road. Blacksburg Transit buses and school buses will also alter their routes.

Because of the changes, Holiday Inn will lose one of its two entrances.

Jim Nye, regional operations manager for Newport Hospitality Group, which owns the hotel, said Wednesday that he hopes the town will consider allowing the hotel to build a bigger sign, given the inconvenience of the changes and competition from a new hotel opening at Tech.

"You almost have to pass our sign before you see us. ... We'd like a little more visibility," he said Wednesday.

Current town zoning would not allow the kind of sign the hotel wants to build, but Schirmer told business owners at the meeting they could apply as group to create a "special signage district" along the boulevard. Such a designation would allow them to build more and bigger signs.

The hotel parking lot will eventually connect to the Montgomery County Community Services parking lot next door, which opens onto the boulevard, Schirmer said.

Despite the traffic headaches, the owners of Bonomo's Plaza shopping center were upbeat about the changes Wednesday.

"We think it's wonderful," Jane Bonomo said.

"All of this is good," said Bonomo's husband, Vic Bonomo. "It's going to be the new urban center of the town."

The work coincides with the opening of the Inn at Virginia Tech scheduled for July 11 and major construction at University Mall that will soon begin.

Developers Bill Ellenbogen and Bill Sterrett plan to add a four-story retail and office complex and a four-story parking garage to the mall, though they said they have dropped plans to add apartments because of parking requirements.

For more information, call Brandon Steele at 961-1126.