ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603290045
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Highways
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
Just in time for Christmas 1960, workers wrapped up a 4.9-mile section of Interstate 81 in Botetourt County - the first piece of the highway finished around Roanoke and among the first along the road's 328-mile path through Virginia.
In 1970, construction bids were opened on a 14.9-mile "missing link" between Dixie Caverns and Christiansburg. However, it was not until 1987 that the interstate road, which was begun in the late 1950s, was finally completed when a six-lane section between Wytheville and Fort Chiswell opened.
Over the past 40 years, I-81 has become a popular north-south route for commuters, tourists and truckers. What could sometimes be a lonely drive in the road's early years has become a steadily flowing river of goods and humanity.
In 1994, according to VDOT, there were 1,600 accidents along I-81 and 37 fatalities. Around 8,000 heavy trucks travel I-81 each day. Heavy trucks now account for roughly one vehicle in three on a road that was designed to handle truck traffic amounting to only 6 percent of the total.
I-81 has become a dangerous place to be. That's probably not news to anyone who drives the road.
In the late 1980s, around the time that work on I-81 was finally completed, state planners were already talking about adding two more lanes to cope with congestion. Talk about the problems on I-81 has continued. The road was the subject of two separate meetings last week at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
Finally, things are moving beyond the talking stage.
Preliminary engineering studies are under way on four separate sections of the road, including a 43-mile stretch between Christiansburg and Buchanan. Contracts for studies on two other heavily traveled sections are out for bids.
One of the most pressing needs, VDOT acknowledges, is for improvements to the stretch of the road through the Roanoke Valley - a piece of highway that carries 50,000 vehicles a day. While VDOT plans a six-lane highway through most of the state, it is contemplating eight-laning of I-81 between Daleville and Christiansburg.
In keeping with a new emphasis on public involvement in the planning of the state's highways, VDOT has been seeking out the public's ideas on what the road's needs are. Last Tuesday in Roanoke, the agency solicited thoughts of the trucking industry, shippers, law enforcement and others about the road. A similar meeting was held earlier in Staunton and another is set for April 17 in Marion.
At the Roanoke meeting, Fred Kiffner, who is coordinating work on I-81, estimated that it will take 20 to 25 years to rebuild the road at a cost of up to $1.8 billion.
A separate session last week at the Hotel Roanoke also focused on the problems of I-81 and specifically how technology could be used to make the road safer and more efficient. Virginia Tech hosted the meeting, which drew representatives from the six states through which I-81 passes. In all, the road covers 900 miles from near Knoxville, Tenn., north to the New York-Canadian border.
At both meetings people talked about using the railroads to relieve some of the stress on I-81 with intermodal techniques, in which freight travels by more than one form of transportation. But conspicuously absent from the meetings in our railroad town were representative of Norfolk Southern.
David Clarke, an intermodal expert from the University of Tennessee, said that the rail infrastructure, particularly the track paralleling the north-south I-81 corridor, is not up to the task of handling intermodal traffic. The track built on 19th-century rights-of-way can't offer the speeds railroads need to compete with trucks, he said.
Also noting the lack of intermodal terminals at major cities along the corridor, including Roanoke and Knoxville, Clarke suggested governments might want to invest in intermodal terminals in much the same way they already invest in airports. But at least one person responded that private businesses should build the terminals if they're needed.
Clarke raised a key public policy question that politicians seemed to have artfully avoided for many years, whether it's in the nation's long-term interest to make investments in its railroads comparable to those made in highways.
He also raised other questions:
Can anyone rationally argue that spending $1.8 billion to eliminate congestion on I-81 does not amount to a public subsidy of the trucking industry?
Will the public seriously consider any alternative to that kind of subsidy as long as they have to share the roads with trucks?
Did the railroads make a political blunder by not fighting to hold onto their passenger business and would people feel more sympathetic to the railroads if they still depended on them for personal transportation?
Do we prefer to keep avoiding those kinds of questions and continue building larger and larger I-81s to keep the country moving?
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB