One northbound and one southbound rest area on Interstate 81 in the New River Valley would remain open under a revised plan to save money by closing some interstate rest areas.

But the state has announced plans to eliminate safety service patrols in most of the commonwealth.

State highway officials on Wednesday announced revised plans to trim transportation services and bring budgets in line with expected money. The information was given to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which is scheduled to vote on it next month.

Virginia operates 14 rest areas on I-81, two of them doubling as welcome centers. On Feb. 19, the Virginia Department of Transportation proposed closing all of those rest areas except two at the southern end and one at the northern end of I-81. That plan would have left more than 300 miles of I-81 without a state rest area.

The latest thinking calls for continuing to operate rest areas at intervals of about 120 miles, said David Ekern, state transportation commission.

Coming out of Tennessee, northbound I-81 traffic could use the Bristol welcome center and rest stops at Abingdon, Ironto and New Market. Coming down from West Virginia, southbound I-81 traffic could use the Winchester welcome center and rest stops at Fairfield and Radford.

All told, Virginia intends to close 19 of 42 rest areas for a savings of $9 million. The old plan called for closing 25 for a savings of $12 million.

For the long term, the state intends to seek federal authority to turn over operation of rest areas to private companies. Ekern's goal is turn over the keys by 2011. If that turns out not to be possible, he proposes razing all buildings and restoring landscaping at closed rest areas beginning in 2011.

Meanwhile, in another savings strategy, Ekern said he proposes to eliminate safety service patrols in all areas of the state except Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. The roving troubleshooters who can provide services such as fixing flat tires completed about 123,200 assists last year, 4,173 of them in Southwest Virginia.

Dana Martin, the Salem District representative on the transportation board, said Ekern's new recommendations for the rest areas appeared to address some of the concerns he and other board members in the I-81 corridor had raised about the commissioner's first plan.

"I was very comfortable that they were listening and paying attention to what was being said," Martin said.

Martin said he would like to have seen as little as 75 miles of distance between rest areas in the corridor, but added, "I just know that 300 [miles] was entirely too long."

Dale Bennett, executive vice president of the Virginia Trucking Association, was pleased the Ekern dropped plans to eliminate 225 truck parking spaces along interstate highways.

"They have addressed the safety concerns we had with the truck parking spaces," Bennett said.

Bennett said he also agreed with Ekern's proposal to replace a two-hour parking restriction at rest areas with a ban on overnight parking. But the preservation of parking spaces and new time restrictions doesn't fix a larger problem facing truckers passing through Virginia, he said.

"That doesn't address the underlying problem that we have a shortage of public and private truck parking spaces in the commonwealth," he said.

Staff writer Mike Sluss contributed this report.