Posted on 03/27/2019 8:08:12 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
RICHMOND — Interstate 81’s heart pumps through rural Virginia with veins that run from Tennessee to the Canadian border — a vital roadway for manufacturers, farmers and commuters.
With a long track record of crashes and congestion, Virginians looked to legislators for solutions to improving the interstate. But Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, said the General Assembly passed only “a shell of a bill.”
At the beginning of the session, Gov. Ralph Northam met with legislators to announce bipartisan support for finding a revenue source for improvements to Virginia’s 325-mile stretch of I-81, which accounts for 42 percent of statewide interstate truck traffic.
“Making these improvements will take money. Finding money requires tough choices,” Northam said.
Legislators ended their session Sunday without finding the money. So Virginians will have to wait another year before seeing a plan to pay for improvements to the highway.
In December, the Commonwealth Transportation Board released a study that identified $4 billion in construction needs for I-81, including $2.2 billion in priority projects. Officials floated various ideas, from taxes to tolls, to finance the improvements.
As the General Assembly convened in January, lawmakers filed six bills seeking to address the problem. They included HB 2718, sponsored by Del. Steven Landes, R-Augusta, and SB 1716, introduced by Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham. Those bills sought to impose tolls on I-81, with the revenues designated for improvements on the interstate.
The House and Senate each passed different versions of the measures. When a conference committee met to resolve the differences, legislators switched gears and approved the twin bills without a drop of funding for the interstate improvements.
(Excerpt) Read more at potomaclocal.com ...
PING.
I-81 in Virginia is actually part of the main freeway between New York City and Los Angeles (you leave NYC on I-78 until it merges into I-81 25 miles northeast of Harrisburg, PA; you stay on I-81 until it merges into I-40 near Morristown, TN; and then you stay on I-40 all the way to Barstow, California, where it ends and merges into I-15, which you follow into the San Bernardino area, and then you have a number of freeway choices to head into LA).
I-81’s truck traffic is breathtaking to say the least; there is only one mountain you have to go over (Paris Mountain, between Roanoke and Christiansburg); the roadway mostly runs through valleys, and is the preferred route of truckers headed for a variety of locations.
Governor Raph “MS13” “Infanticide” Northam (Raph is how he pronounces his first name) wanted to put a 17 cent per mile toll on I-81, making the 300 mile trip between the junction of I-81 and I-66 to the TN state line at Bristol a $51 trip, not counting gas and wear and tear.
IIRC, the proposed rates were 11 cents/mile for cars and 17 cents/mile for trucks.
It's extremely dangerous for private cars, avoid it if at all possible.
Some of that freight traffic the railroads would love to have, some they are not interested in competing for. For hauls that can be done dock to dock in two days or less by a trucker, the rails roads cannot compete time wise, so they do not try. Once the trip would go to the third day, rails can make sense. For most interstates in the US, it is actually the railroads that keep the trucks to a minority of the traffic.
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