Interstate 81 (VA)
Massive STAR proposal rejected
Plan for I-81 expansion still has problems
©Jim Waite
Trucks crowd I-81 at Raphine, VA
The Federal Highway Administration approved VDOT’s final corridor-wide study of improving Interstate 81 on June 6, 2007, but the news is mixed.
In a major positive step, the Final Environmental Impact Statement, (FEIS) rejects a proposal by STAR Solutions (a private consortium) to add two lanes or more each way along the entire 325-mile length of I-81 in Virginia, rebuild over 80 interchanges, and convert the highway to a toll road. This proposal is estimated to cost at least $13 billion, and has been ranked one of the most wasteful and destructive proposals in the U.S. by Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Rejecting the STAR proposal is consistent with the plan for improving I-81 adopted by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in October, 2006. The similarities largely end there, however. The board’s plan includes a phased approach to making improvements and a realistic assessment of alternatives, with widening a last resort. In contrast, the FEIS for the most part proceeds directly to expanding I-81 to 6 – and in most cases 8 – lanes, an approach that would cost billions of dollars and cause tremendous harm to scenic, historic, and environmental resources.
Further, the FEIS eliminates rail projects from the next phase of study, dismissing rail as a way to divert freight trucks off the interstate as not reasonable. In SELC’s estimation, this is a huge gap in planning for the long-term improvement of I-81, the major transportation corridor for western Virginia.
Many critical issues remain to be decided about the steps to improve I-81. SELC will continue working to correct the flaws in VDOT’s analysis and to ensure that the state solves safety and traffic problems in the I-81 corridor with minimal impact to communities and to the environment. Among other things, we continue to promote improving "hot spots" and speed limit enforcement to increase safety, improving rail facilities to divert trucks to rail, and improving local street networks to get more local drivers off the interstate.
