Sunday, May 21, 2006
Look for real interstate solutions
From the RoundTable blog
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Charles A. Miller
Miller, of New Market, is a retired professor of political science.
When Congress authorized the interstate highway system 50 years ago, it was not called "interstate" for nothing. The interstates are meant to move freight and passenger traffic efficiently across state lines. Interstate 81, for instance, runs 950 miles from the Canadian border into Tennessee. It is not a Virginia-only highway. We share it with five other states.
When it comes to improving I-81, therefore, we should not act by ourselves. We should secure the cooperation of other states, and we should lead in that cooperation.
Interstate cooperation in the United States has never been easy; it suffered an almost fatal collapse with the Civil War. But when cooperation has come about, it has fulfilled the vision of the framers of the Constitution and has benefited us all.
Interstate cooperation has usually depended on a framework approved by Congress. The framework can take place through ordinary legislation, as in the case of the interstates; by approval of an interstate compact such as the Colorado River Compact on water consumption in the West; or by creating independent agencies like the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
But when the Virginia Department of Transportation prepared its recent draft Environmental Impact Statement about I-81, it deliberately confined itself to highway and rail improvements in Virginia. Such restricted thinking is rooted in the history of both VDOT and the interstate system. The result is still a cramped vision of how to deal with the crowded traffic on I-81, in particular truck traffic. VDOT's Environmental Impact Statement carries out neither the Constitution's vision of interstate cooperation nor, as one can infer from today's gas prices, a vision of American energy needs.
A few weeks ago, when the I-81 impact statement was the subject of critical public hearings from Winchester to Bristol, the two most visible interest groups to testify were Virginia Valley Network and Rail Solution. Valley Network proposes a railroad component among its "reasonable solutions." Rail Solution, which obviously concentrates on railroads, seeks a "balanced transportation system." Its most important point is that it takes at least a 500-mile rail line, from Tennessee into Pennsylvania, to be economically successful in diverting truck traffic from the interstate.
What has been VDOT's response to a rail idea? First, it confined its study to I-81 in Virginia. Second, within Virginia's 325 miles, VDOT has studied not the railroad as a whole, but rather 13 discrete sections of line, none of them more than 10 miles long. Third, it has concluded that "rail improvements alone do little to address future needs on I-81."
But if there's anything certain about the interstate, it is that nothing alone will do much to address the future needs of the I-81 corridor. Rail improvement solely within Virginia is not advocated by anyone. VDOT has evaluated a small fraction of a large idea and then singled out the large idea to disparage.
A railroad mainly paralleling I-81 would requires exceptional vision and is undoubtedly a complex idea. The idea is intermodal, requiring coordination between two modes of transport: highway and rail. It is "interfinancial," requiring two forms of financing: public and private. And it is "interjurisdictional," requiring cooperation among several states.
One approach to the interstate dimension of I-81 has been overlooked not only by VDOT but apparently by everyone else. That is to work with the Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development agency that was established by Congress more than 40 years ago.
Like the TVA, the coverage of the Appalachian Regional Commission, or ARC, is not by state boundaries, but by geography. For ARC, geography means counties in Appalachia. ARC covers more than 400 counties in 13 states and it happens that I-81 passes through ARC counties in every state along the interstate. In Virginia, seven of the 12 I-81 counties are also ARC counties: Botetourt, Montgomery, Pulaski, Rockbridge, Smyth, Washington and Wythe.
What an opening the Appalachian Regional Commission could provide into interstate cooperation for I-81. Whether through VDOT or Gov. Tim Kaine, who is a member of the commission, Virginia should take advantage of the overlap of ARC and interstate counties and bring vision to the future of I-81.
