Virginia transportation officials on Wednesday rolled out fewer cuts to highway rest stops, ferry services and interstate maintenance than it had proposed to help close a $2.6 billion shortfall over the next six years.
Still, the Virginia Department of Transportation recommendations will mean a leaner list of services and amenities offered by the state, which is reeling from a loss of state and federal transportation revenues.
VDOT had planned to shutter 25 of its 42 rest areas as part of its initial budget-cutting proposal. But after nearly a dozen public hearings around the commonwealth in which drivers, truckers and tourism groups came out in force to protest the closures, VDOT has revised its plans to board up 19 of the stops.
Two of the facilities saved are in Northern Virginia, with the remaining four along the trucking corridor of Interstate 81. VDOT Commissioner David Ekern told reporters on a conference call that the new plan ensures there will be no more than 120 miles of highway between each rest area.
State officials also will lobby to remove a federal prohibition on commercializing rest stops in an upcoming transportation funding bill.
Transportation officials also had proposed to cut interstate maintenance contracts from between $10 million to $15 million. Instead, they will be cut by about $8 million in the coming fiscal year, a figure that could change depending on the outcome of contract negotiations.
Ferry services in Hampton Roads and other downstate areas, which were slated to see a $2 million cut, will be slashed by $1.28 million.
Roadside mowing will be scaled back in both frequency and area.
VDOT plans to trim its staff to about 7,500 by July 2010. The agency announced the layoffs of 232 temporary employee earlier this month, and plans to let go up to 450 workers in October.
