Opponents of Virginia’s proposal to shutter more than half of its highway rest stops, including six in Northern Virginia, say the move will leave the state with blighted roadside eyesores, jeopardize drivers’ safety and undermine the state’s tourism efforts.
The Virginia Department of Transportation just completed nearly a dozen public meetings across the state, where they heard an earful on the 25 proposed rest stop closures and other cuts.
“VDOT’s plan for this closure is just to mothball these rest areas, board them up and put up barriers, which is a horrible image for Virginia,” Diana Boxey, marketing and communications manager for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, told The Examiner.
The association is among the most vocal opponents of the plan, which will especially affect the trucking corridor of Interstate 81. The plan will leave hundreds of miles of pavement along that highway without a rest area, Boxey said.
“As far as truckers are concerned, they’ve hardly got any place to stop and rest as it is,” she said.
A group on the social networking site Facebook called “Save the I-81 Rest Areas,” organized by the hospitality association, the Star City Harbinger blog and Roanoke-based Access Advertising & PR, has gathered about 750 members.
VDOT’s proposal is a reflection of how scarce transportation funding has become during the recession, which has shrunk budgets at all levels of government, worsened by continued gridlock in Richmond on passing new road and rail funding.
Virginia transportation officials have cut $3 billion worth of highway projects since June, and VDOT is laying off 1,000 full-time and 450 part-time employees. As well as shuttering the rest stops, the agency is proposing to cut ferry service by a third, close maintenance facilities and offices, and scale back roadside maintenance.
“All of those things are on the table, but we do have an absolute number that we have to get down to in order to meet that budget number,” said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer.
One possible solution — privatizing the rest stops — is not an option because the practice is barred by federal law.
“It’s a potential solution to this issue, it’s not something we can take advantage of right now,” Homer said.
