East of Newport, US 460 ascends Sinking Creek Mountain, at the top of which the highway enters Montgomery County. The highway, now named Pandapas Pond Road, passes between the eponymous pond, which is the source of Poverty Creek, which flows west into the New River, and the headwaters of Craig Creek, which flows east toward the James River. US 460 next crosses over Brush Mountain, east of which the highway curves south at Toms Creek and enters the town of Blacksburg. At the north end of town, the long US 460 Bus. that serves both Blacksburg and Christiansburg splits off along Main Street while US 460 bypasses downtown Blacksburg and Virginia Tech to the west. The four-lane freeway has partial cloverleaf interchanges with Toms Creek Road and Prices Fork Road, which heads east as SR 412 toward downtown Blacksburg and the center of the Virginia Tech campus. The freeway previously had one at-grade intersection: a junction with Southgate Drive (SR 314), which provided access to the Virginia Tech athletics facilities, including Lane Stadium and Cassell Coliseum; the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine; and a research park that contains Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport. Construction started in the spring of 2015 on a new diverging-diamond interchange that replaced the at-grade Southgate Drive intersection. The new interchange is just south (east) of the current intersection and serves both the Virginia Tech campus and the Corporate Research Center via new roads and a relocated Southgate Drive (including two roundabouts). The project, which includes two bridges over US 460, opened in December 2017 one year earlier than estimated. At the southern edge of the research park, US 460 meets its business route (Main Street) at a complex interchange featuring many flyover ramps and a variety of direct and indirect connections to allow every movement between the two highways. Immediately to the east of the interchange is the western end of the Virginia Smart Road, a Virginia Department of Transportation facility that is not open to the public. US 460 continues south parallel to its business route and enters the town of Christiansburg, the county seat of Montgomery County. The U.S. Highway has a partial cloverleaf interchange with the eastern end of SR 114 (Peppers Ferry Road) before it reaches another complex interchange with US 460 Bus. (Franklin Street). That interchange includes pair of flyovers from both directions of US 460 and a trumpet interchange to the north of Norfolk Southern's Christiansburg District and the business route's interchange with SR 111 (Cambria Street).