Sunday, October 08, 2006
I-81 plan: the good, the bad and the very bad
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Wiley Mitchell and Trip Pollard
Mitchell, a Norfolk lawyer, served in the Virginia Senate for 14 years and is a member of the Virginia Rail Advisory Board. Pollard is director of the Land & Community Program at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville.
On Wednesday the Commonwealth Transportation Board meets in Roanoke to consider approving an environmental study on improving the 325 miles of Interstate 81 in Virginia. Simultaneously, the board will consider a new I-81 plan that makes major changes in the plan being considered when the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was prepared by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
VDOT's new I-81 plan is a great improvement. With some exceptions, it is a reasonable, fiscally responsible approach to solving safety and congestion problems that plague I-81. There are, however, significant shortcomings, and the board should reject those sections.
The good
The Kaine administration and VDOT should be commended for including several major positive elements in the new I-81 plan.
First, because safety and congestion problems are not uniform throughout the corridor, the new plan rejects the $13 billion STAR Solutions proposal to add two lanes in each direction for the entire 325-mile corridor. As Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer noted, a "one-size-fits-all" approach will not work. Few tears will be shed over the rejection of STAR's proposal. Its high tolls and significant environmental damage have sparked strong opposition across the board.
Second, the plan's focus on safety improvements is on target. Because serious safety problems are concentrated in relatively few places, VDOT should move quickly to make context-sensitive improvements tailored to specific safety problems.
Third, the plan calls for upgrading rail lines in the I-81 corridor, which has tremendous public support. I-81 is paralleled by existing rail lines, and maximizing rail's potential to get trucks off the interstate provides a less expensive, more environmentally friendly and far safer alternative for relieving traffic congestion. As the General Assembly directed, the plan also calls for analyzing out-of-state rail improvements -- which offer the greatest potential for relieving congestion in Virginia.
The bad
Despite its good findings, the DEIS is deeply flawed and should not be approved until the problems are fixed. Among other flaws, the DEIS:
n Erroneously dismisses rail as a meaningful component of reducing I-81 traffic. The DEIS should be revised to match the new plan by giving realistic consideration to the impact of rail upgrades in and out of Virginia, and should include the results of the pending interstate rail study.
n Discounts such key safety steps as improved law enforcement. The safety corridor near Roanoke has successfully reduced accidents, and VDOT recently identified other steps to improve I-81 safety.
n Fails to link transportation and land-use planning. The study ignores the impact of land use on travel demand and barely mentions the impact of expanding I-81 on land use in nearby communities.
n Does not distinguish between the impact of local traffic and through traffic on I-81 congestion, and therefore misses better solutions, such as improving local roads so that drivers are not forced to use the interstate for local trips.
n Underestimates environmental damage from expanding I-81, including impacts on air and water quality and impacts of increased truck traffic on communities and historic sites if tolls are imposed.
The very bad
The most serious problem with VDOT's new plan is the potential of adding up to two lanes each way throughout the corridor. Although the mammoth STAR proposal is on the ropes, something closely resembling it could be resurrected. The tremendous cost and damage this would cause are unacceptable and the board should reject this option outright.
Although some sections of I-81 need to be expanded, final consideration of the DEIS conclusions concerning long-term needs should be deferred until the DEIS flaws are corrected and we have the results of the comprehensive rail analysis.
The board should approve targeted safety upgrades, increased enforcement, a comprehensive rail study and rail upgrades, and these efforts should begin immediately. It should not approve the long-term needs analysis in the study, and it should reject unequivocally the recommendation to add up to two lanes each way to the entire length of I-81 in Virginia. We can make necessary improvements to the I-81 corridor without supersizing the highway and doing irreparable damage to one of the most beautiful and environmentally vulnerable portions of our state.
