Friday, January 04, 2008
Coalition wants a comprehensive I-81 solution
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Megan Gallagher and Stewart Schwartz
Gallahger lives in The Plains and is director of the Shenandoah Valley Network. Schwartz lives in Alexandria and is executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
The desire for a comprehensive solution to Interstate 81's future called for in your recent editorial "Trains alone won't fix I-81" (Dec. 20) is right on the mark and just what we support. That is why we were obliged to go to court to require the Virginia Department of Transportation to keep options open for a comprehensive solution that would otherwise have been foreclosed.
The conservation community has identified solutions to the problems motorists experience on I-81, and our approach has been endorsed by 22 civic groups and 11 cities, counties and towns, including the Roanoke City Council.
In formally adopted "Reasonable Solutions" resolutions, these governments and groups support targeted safety improvements, climbing lanes, redesigned exits, increased traffic safety enforcement, rail investment and local transit.
The unreasonable solution is the one provided by VDOT, which plans for only one answer to the problem: An $11 billion toll-funded, corridor-length highway-widening to six, eight and even 12 lanes.
Analysis of VDOT data by a nationally recognized expert demonstrates that VDOT's 325-mile widening proposal does not fit the problems facing I-81:
n First, safety problems along 10 percent of the roadway, which VDOT first identified in 1997 could have completed by now.
n Second, long-distance freight traffic, which can be significantly reduced through multistate rail improvements.
n Third, local traffic in the metropolitan areas, which can be addressed with better land-use plans, better local road networks and targeted widening in these metropolitan areas.
We have also pointed out that the VDOT study does not account for the effect of rising energy prices that will accelerate the shift of freight from roads to rail. Spending $11 billion on a massive highway expansion and not including a robust freight rail program despite rising energy prices is a guaranteed way to make our shipments less competitive in world trade.
VDOT and the Federal Highway Administration have ignored overwhelming support for other alternatives, including rail, and the opposition to widening expressed in the opinions of 2,600 people who attended hearings and submitted comments. The agencies have refused to supplement their study to look at comprehensive solutions, including a rail alternative, even as Norfolk Southern offers a much cheaper $2 billion to $3 billion multi-state I-81 corridor solution to take about 750,000 trucks off of I-81 and connecting highways in Virginia.
Alternatives to widening are essential because VDOT's plan for I-81 would take and destroy 7,400 acres of developed land, 1,062 acres of prime farmland, up to 2,400 residences, 662 businesses, 1,238 acres of Civil War battlefields, 33 acres of wetlands, 361 acres of floodplains, 23 miles of streams and 13 threatened or endangered species. Options we have proposed could avoid the taking of so many homes, businesses and resources.
Our organizations would have preferred not to sue. But the FHWA/VDOT plan following their Tier I (Phase I) Environmental Impact Study is limited to highway expansion with tolls on cars and trucks.
Because rail freight and other solutions are not part of the officially adopted record of decision, these options cannot be added during future Tier 2 studies. Moreover, VDOT and the FHWA set a statute of limitations for challenging their Tier I Study decisions. Few in the public were aware that state and federal transportation officials were trying to legally end the debate on the future of I-81.
VDOT and FHWA forced this into the courts and VDOT and FHWA can keep it out of the courts by withdrawing their notice in the Federal Register and eliminating the statute of limitations.
The agencies could restore the integrity of the planning process by supplementing their Tier I study with the results of the state's long-awaited multistate rail study, which was mandated by the General Assembly. These actions would allow time for a broader and fairer discussion of the best long-term solutions for the I-81 corridor.
