No more rest: VDOT to close county’s rest stops
John Boal/News & Messenger
The rest stop on I-95 southbound will be closed by July 1.
Published: June 19, 2009
The Virginia Department of Transportation is closing four rest stops in Prince William County come July 1.
The Interstate 95 northbound and southbound rest areas in Dale City and the eastbound and westbound rest areas off Interstate 66 in Manassas will be closed.
However, the Dale City truck stops will remain open. In all, VDOT will close 23 of 42 rest stops around the state, saving $9 million. The manner in which they are closing has not been determined yet, said VDOT spokeswoman Joan Morris.
Battered by the recession, Virginia’s highway and transit programs have shrunk by one-third in two years.
“We’re back to basics,” state Transportation Commissioner David S. Ekern said Thursday. “It’s about pavements and bridges now. It’s not about congestion. It’s not about expansion.”
Ekern made his comments Thursday after the Commonwealth Transportation Board adopted a $7.5 billion statewide transportation-improvement program for 2010-2015, down $4 billion from the $11.5 billion in the 2008-2014 program.
“The commonwealth is facing a crisis in transportation funding,” Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said in a statement. “These drastic reductions reflect our ongoing challenge to meet federal obligations and state maintenance needs while experiencing drastic declines in state and federal revenues.”
Virginia has only enough of its own money to use to match federal grant dollars and to pay for mandated programs, according to Reta Busher, the Virginia Department of Transportation’s chief financial officer.
Consequently, the cutbacks have eliminated the state funding distributed to localities for their own use on secondary, primary, urban and unpaved road work.
Federal transportation stimulus funds will blunt — but won’t offset — the reductions in Virginia’s transportation revenues, state officials said.
The state is to receive $694.5 million in federal economic-stimulus funds, to be spent within three years. The board so far has awarded contracts for $81 million of the money.
However, the state highway program brought good news for metropolitan Richmond.
The board approved more than $97 million to start two ready-to-go projects in Richmond and Henrico County: rehabilitating 11 deteriorating bridges on Interstate 95 and repaving the intensely potholed Interstate 64 between I-95 and Parham Road.
“We’re good to go,” said Transportation Board member Gerald P. McCarthy of Richmond.
VDOT’s chief engineer, Malcolm T. Kerley, hit one of the potholes on I-64 near Glenside Drive last week, blew out one of his tires and bent its wheel.
“Even VDOT people are not immune,” he said.
With transportation revenues tumbling, the board chopped VDOT’s maintenance and operations for fiscal 2009-2010:
—Shutting down 19 of the state’s 42 interstate-highway rest areas and welcome centers.
—Reducing motorist-service patrols in metropolitan areas.
—Closing 51 VDOT local residency offices and equipment shops.
—Scaling back interstate maintenance contracts.
—Cutting roadside mowing and maintenance by $20 million.
—Paring some ferry services.
Aimed at saving $9 million a year, the rest-area closures have been a particular sore spot with the trucking and tourism industries, as well as local officials and members of the public, particularly along Interstate 81 in western Virginia.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Megan Svajda, the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association’s director of government relations. “This is the height of the tourist season. For any to be closed is detrimental to the tourist industry.”
Tourism is big business in the state. Travelers spent almost $18.7 billion in Virginia in 2007 and generated $4.3 billion in payroll, according to the state tourism agency.
“We’re a state that people have to go through,” said Transportation Board Member James A. Davis of Winchester. “We really need to be friendly to them.
“It’s shortsighted how we’re going to precipitously close” the rest areas this summer, he said.
Ekern said VDOT is trying to accommodate the travel industry. “I’m not just going to throw up barricades” blocking travelers from the rest stops.
At yesterday’s board meeting, Davis tried to use $9 million in highway paving money to keep the rest stops open, but the motion failed.
Media General News Service contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
cjcanu -
The Va. rest stops I’ve visited I always thought were well planned, for the era built. But time changes everything. I agree extended truck lanes would be great—the country’s economy moves on trucks - and who 40 yrs ago could have predicted today’s traffic, truck and car. The problem arises due to the interstate being built with no method for getting fdunds for upkeep = no one wants to be taxed. So, cuts have to be made somewhere. If everyone wants to hold onto their money, then they’ll have to hold onto their pee.
As for getting weighed at truck scales, we have both an “obesity” in trucks and individuals, It is hard these days to find bathroom scales that weigh beyond 300 lbs. LOL
phdee - I think I understand some of what you are saying. My concern is the truck scales only. I realize the scales are outdated due to the time period they were installed and I realize they are neccessary and its obvious they need to re-enter the interstate. The issue is the lack of updating by whoever is responsable for making the neccessary upgrades to make this a non safety issue…truck traffic backing out into and sitting in lanes of travel to get weighed is unacceptable for obvious reasons. A simple lane extension to the scales and from the scales would be suffice.
My other posting on this subject was to simply show an example of how irresponsible the state has been w/ the infrastructure of its interstate system.
Oh, you really don’t take your “car” to the truck scales to get weighed do you? LOL.
Rest stops when previously built were put up in “rural” or “nothing” counties. PWC qualified for two. Progres is just now catching up. A rest stop is a necessity regardless of how slow re-entering takes. And trucks need load monitoring. No matter how far from the roadway you build these stops, the vehicles will still have to re-enter.
I use the truck stops to get weighed. I drive there, get weighed with me in the car, then get out, and the empty car is weighed. The diffeence in the two weighings is my weight.
Why doesn’t the state shut down that major safety issue they call the truck scales. Truck traffic has a habit of forming long lines out into the lanes of a major interstate causing backups and, oh yea, SAFETY ISSUES. And those lines aren’t forming because those trucks are over their weight limit and being restricted from driving any further. Then there is the merge issues w/ these trucks coming back onto the interstate at such low speeds. This just futher examplifies the idiocy of our state officials. Those scales have been in place w/ no major enhancements since they were installed back in at least the 1970’s. Just think, the way Virginia updates its highway systems it very well may be the next century before this piece of infrastructure gets any attention.
I know this posting was a little off of the subject but the state officiating is an embarresment and a joke to say the least.
Why does NoVA even put up with this mess to begin with? NoVA needs to secede from the Commonwealth…we have nothing to gain from staying in the Commnwealth while our tax dollars are drained down to Richmond and disappear forever…
Here’s an interesting website: http://www.vdotwaste.com/
How much did the state spend to upgrade rest stops before the Jamestown 400th anniversary? This is a short-sighted fix that is going to cost more in the long run.
I think it is a huge safety concern closing the rest stops, when drivers can’t pull off to take a break. They’re not going to exit into congested cities like Fredericksburg. They’re going to push on, past their limits.
I agree - lay off top level managers and keep the road-level services going. It’s less expensive to rehire someone for a position that was suspended than to close and then try to reopen an expensive facility that’s not been kept up and is open to vandalism, etc. due to neglect.
The econo,ic meltdown was caused during the 8 yrs of Bush. The meltdown has affected Va.‘s revenues.
There are options:
Find a bush.
Use a tree.
Go behind a bldg.
Go on the side of the road.
Wet your pants.
Keep a urine specimen bottle in the car.
Hold it till you reach your destination.
Find a portable toilet.
This is only a continuance of a much larger problem. VIRGINIA needs to clamp down on VDOT and remind them who they work for. They are NOT a private business, and are subservient to the people in this state. If the people want the rest stops open, remember we can always CUT VDOT jobs and/or salaries to make that happen.
For TOO long VDOT has had a free run dictating what they will and won’t do, and IMHO, they have no rights whatsoever as a taxpayer funded govt organization to make that determination.
By my calculations….. I am 51 so 47 years ago was another democratic run congress.. check out the sites i put on here.. gives alot of information and the biggest proponent of curbing private businesses was the petrolium Industry.
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