News and Views

The Roanoke Times : Editorial: Who's going to pay to fix I-81?

For this study, we can thank state Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham County. Whether you like the outcome of that study may depend on whether you drive a truck.

First, let’s review the numbers:
  • When Interstate 81 was built, the expectation was that 15 percent of the traffic would be trucks. Today, it’s 24 percent. Of course, that’s an average. On some days, in some places, the figure is 40 percent. There’s also the volume. In the Roanoke Valley, traffic on I-81 has more than tripled since the 1970s.
  • Interstate 81 is not the state’s busiest interstate, but it is the one with the most traffic delays because of accidents. On most other Virginia interstates, the main reason for a delay is basic traffic congestion. On I-81, the main reason for a delay is usually an accident, and those delays are long ones – half an hour or more.
The Virginia Department of Transportation says 51 percent of the delays on I-81 are accident-related. By contrast, the figure is 35 percent on I-77, 25 percent on I-64, 15 percent on I-95, 7 percent on I-66 and just 4 percent on I-495, better known as the Capital Beltway (probably because the traffic there is already stopped anyway).

Put another way, when something happens on I-81, more than half the time things just grind to a halt. That’s not news to us in this part of the state, of course, but this phenomenon does sometimes come as a surprise to some officials on the other side of the state — who simply look at the traffic count and say “oh, things aren’t that bad.”

Why is I-81 so prone to accidents? All that truck traffic is one reason. So, too, is our topography. I-95, the state’s other north-south interstate, is basically flat. Out here west of the Blue Ridge, I-81 is up and down, up and down until you get into the Shenandoah Valley north of Harrisonburg. The greatest change of elevation is north of the James River in Botetourt and Rockbridge counties, which also happens to have a reputation as one of the most dangerous stretches of road.

There also aren’t a lot of alternative routes. Whenever there’s an accident on I-81 in the Roanoke Valley, traffic winds up going through downtown Salem. Anyone who lives there knows what it’s like to suddenly have Main Street turned into a truck route.

One obvious fix is to add more lanes. We have some stretches with three lanes each way and traffic moves a lot more smoothly there. The cost is also pretty horrendous. Just adding seven miles of a truck-climbing lane in Rockbridge County nearly a decade ago cost $74 million. Replacing the northbound bridge over the New River is expected to cost $68.4 million. Adding “auxiliary lanes” between exits 141 and 143 in the Roanoke Valley is put at $62 million.

In the early 2000s, there was a proposal for a public-private partnership to widen all of I-81 to eight lanes – four in each direction. The pricetag then was put at $7.8 billion. In today’s dollars, that would be at least $10.8 billion.

That proposal — by a consortium called STAR Solutions — also fell apart. The companies proposed to recoup their investment by charging tolls. That wasn’t popular, and the General Assembly in 2008 passed a bill to prohibit tolls on I-81 without legislators’ consent.

In the decade since, the state has plodded along, adding more lanes where it can afford to do so. You can judge the results for yourself. Building roads is expensive and Virginians have not shown much interest in paying more taxes to get better roads.

Now, tolls and taxes are creeping back into the conversation. Obenshain’s bill — which set the current study in motion — specifically calls on that study to look at “tolling only heavy commercial trucks” on I-81.

State Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta County, had another bill in the past legislative session to raise the gas tax 2.1 percent in the planning districts along I-81. Such an increase would generate an estimated $65 million in fiscal year 2019. That bill passed the Senate 24-16 but was carried over until next year in the House Finance Committee.

Fixing I-81 is as much a political problem as it is a fiscal one. Trucking companies don’t like tolls and wonder why they’re singled out when most of the vehicles on I-81 are cars. Companies that depend on trucks may not like the prospect of tolling costs being passed onto them. Taxes, of course, are always a problem – especially for the Republican legislators who represent all but a handful of districts along I-81. (It’s notable, though, that two other Republicans voted for Hanger’s tax bill — Ben Chafin of Russell County and Bill Carrico of Grayson County.)

Some western legislators also worry that any measure that raises I-81 funds locally will give legislators elsewhere an excuse to direct less state money our way on the theory that we’re taking care of ourselves. It’s like a Facebook relationship status: It’s complicated.

There’s one thing, though, that’s pretty simple and clear: If we want more lanes on I-81, somebody somewhere is going to have to pay for them. Will it be truckers paying tolls (and passing along those costs to shippers and, ultimately, consumers)? Will it be drivers paying more taxes on their gas (keeping in mind some of those drivers will be from out of state)? Or will it be people shopping online?

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that states can start collecting sales taxes from online sales. In theory, shoppers owed those taxes all along but there was never a clear way to collect them. The next General Assembly may create a way. Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne estimates this could amount to $280 million to $300 million a year — although Hanger argues these additional sales tax revenues should go into the general fund, not the transportation fund. He believes motorists using Interstate 81 should be the ones to pay for fixing the road, not anyone else.

Like we said, it’s complicated.

Here’s one other thing that’s clear: The end of the state’s first official comment period on what to do about I-81 is Aug. 6.

Want to weigh in? Email VA81CorridorPlan@OIPI.virginia.gov with “I-81 Corridor Improvement Plan” in the subject line. Don’t text and drive, but if you’re stuck in one of those I-81 backups, you probably have time then to do it safely.

Read the full article and more in The Roanoke Times
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