Monday, February 18, 2008
Congestion on Interstate 81 projected to increase
A new $57 million rail project should ease I-81 traffic, but it's not enough.
Virginia rail officials have begun a $57 million project to shift some of the freight moving on interstate highways to adjacent trains.
The topic is especially close to the hearts of Western Virginians. An estimated 60,000 vehicles a day use Interstate 81 at Roanoke, and trucks are an ever-growing presence.
Traffic often moves at a fast clip. But an accident or storm can bring hundreds of vehicles to a temporary halt. The frequency of traffic accidents exceeds the state average in 20 spots in Western and Southwest Virginia.
Periods of congestion and the heightened collision risk are adverse not only for motorists in cars, but also for trucking companies whose fortunes depend on meeting delivery deadlines.
With the widening of I-81 many years away, rail investments offer the possibility of some near-term relief from one issue — heavy truck traffic exceeding the design capacity of the road.
An outright reduction in truck traffic may not be possible, but rail investments are believed to hold the promise of curbing growth in truck traffic.
I-81 connects eastern Tennessee to northern New York, with slightly less than a third of the interstate, 325 miles, in Virginia. A major freight route, the Virginia portion carries a flow of traffic made up of between 20 percent to 40 percent trucks, depending on the location and time of day. The road was designed for 10 percent to 15 percent truck traffic.
Coupled with an expected increase in cars, analysts forecast daily, stop-and-go traffic on I-81 in the Roanoke area and most of the major cities in the Shenandoah Valley by 2035 without major improvements.
Most of I-81 in Virginia needs 2-lane expansion
New lanes are needed. But that's a big job — huge, in fact.
Sixty percent of the Virginia stretch needs or will need two new lanes in each direction, while 40 percent of the roadway needs or will need one new lane in each direction, according to a detailed 2007 study by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
That will cost between $7 billion and $13 billion, according to Fred Altizer, VDOT’s point person on I-81 issues.
Altizer said officials haven’t determined when the new lanes could be built. Asked how long the job would take if Virginia had the money in hand now, Altizer said, "a decade, maybe two."
But neither Virginia nor the Federal Highway Administration has that much money in any budget, which would seem to suggest that the completion date is possibly even more distant.
In the recent past, ambitious I-81 improvement plans have received public attention, only to fall by the shoulder.
Star Solutions was a consortium of highway contractors that formed four years ago around the idea of installing truck lanes paid for by truck tolls. Without agreeing to implement the plan, the state agreed to negotiate with Star Solutions about a possible I-81 upgrade.
But before any work got off the ground, the consortium ended. Altizer said the group, which pulled out of talks late last year, had not received any work or money.
In spite of that setback, VDOT said it is moving forward to improve the safety of I-81 by building climbing lanes for trucks to ease conditions at two trouble spots in Western Virginia.
New lanes are expected to be open to traffic in Rockbridge County in 2010 and in Montgomery County in 2012 at the soonest, Altizer said.
$57 million project just the beginning
Meanwhile, the state and Norfolk Southern Corp. say they are working to the relieve pressure on the interstate by expanding the freight capacity of the steel highway, a term for railroad tracks.
Beginning this month, crews will tackle a rail bottleneck between Manassas and Front Royal, where freight-train congestion is believed to limit the movement of goods needlessly. The state will spend $40 million and Norfolk Southern $17 million for new track and signal equipment.
When the work is done later this year, it will allow longer and more frequent north-south trains and haul more goods to and from Norfolk’s ports, said NS spokesman Robin Chapman.
State highway analysts predict that the work will result in a reduction of 597,000 truck trips from Virginia highways during the following 15 years.
And that’s for starters.
"This $57 million is just the beginning," said Jennifer Pickett, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.
This spring, state and rail officials expect to consider how even larger investments in rail infrastructure could help driving conditions.
A new study is expected to give the full scope of the truck-diversion opportunity and what further improvements will do the most good. With that in hand, more projects will be considered, Pickett said.
State Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, has proposed legislation to improve funding options to pay for rail investments, but budget pressures have blocked approval. Such investments would have value, he said.
"Probably 30 percent of the long-haul trucks on 81 — they haul freight from one state to another — could potentially be diverted to rails if we could improve the rail system and the infrastructure on the rail system," Edwards said.
Separately, NS is raising tunnel clearances and removing obstructions to haul freight containers two-high along a major east-west, Chicago-Norfolk route known as the Heartland Corridor, which passes through the heart of Virginia.
For instance, crews are raising the ceiling of a 3,302-foot tunnel near the Pulaski County community of Cowan that is the longest of 28 scheduled for work.
In addition, the state and railroad leaders expect to announce the location picked for the construction of an intermodal complex in Western Virginia dedicated to shifting freight containers between truck and rail.
Altizer said such efforts will help but won't solve I-81 congestion issues.
"If you took all the trucks off of I-81, you’d still have to widen I-81 because you got too many cars on it."
Staff writer Mason Adams contributed to this report.
The topic is especially close to the hearts of Western Virginians. An estimated 60,000 vehicles a day use Interstate 81 at Roanoke, and trucks are an ever-growing presence.
Traffic often moves at a fast clip. But an accident or storm can bring hundreds of vehicles to a temporary halt. The frequency of traffic accidents exceeds the state average in 20 spots in Western and Southwest Virginia.
Periods of congestion and the heightened collision risk are adverse not only for motorists in cars, but also for trucking companies whose fortunes depend on meeting delivery deadlines.
With the widening of I-81 many years away, rail investments offer the possibility of some near-term relief from one issue — heavy truck traffic exceeding the design capacity of the road.
An outright reduction in truck traffic may not be possible, but rail investments are believed to hold the promise of curbing growth in truck traffic.
I-81 connects eastern Tennessee to northern New York, with slightly less than a third of the interstate, 325 miles, in Virginia. A major freight route, the Virginia portion carries a flow of traffic made up of between 20 percent to 40 percent trucks, depending on the location and time of day. The road was designed for 10 percent to 15 percent truck traffic.
Coupled with an expected increase in cars, analysts forecast daily, stop-and-go traffic on I-81 in the Roanoke area and most of the major cities in the Shenandoah Valley by 2035 without major improvements.
Most of I-81 in Virginia needs 2-lane expansion
New lanes are needed. But that's a big job — huge, in fact.
Sixty percent of the Virginia stretch needs or will need two new lanes in each direction, while 40 percent of the roadway needs or will need one new lane in each direction, according to a detailed 2007 study by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
That will cost between $7 billion and $13 billion, according to Fred Altizer, VDOT’s point person on I-81 issues.
Altizer said officials haven’t determined when the new lanes could be built. Asked how long the job would take if Virginia had the money in hand now, Altizer said, "a decade, maybe two."
But neither Virginia nor the Federal Highway Administration has that much money in any budget, which would seem to suggest that the completion date is possibly even more distant.
In the recent past, ambitious I-81 improvement plans have received public attention, only to fall by the shoulder.
Star Solutions was a consortium of highway contractors that formed four years ago around the idea of installing truck lanes paid for by truck tolls. Without agreeing to implement the plan, the state agreed to negotiate with Star Solutions about a possible I-81 upgrade.
But before any work got off the ground, the consortium ended. Altizer said the group, which pulled out of talks late last year, had not received any work or money.
In spite of that setback, VDOT said it is moving forward to improve the safety of I-81 by building climbing lanes for trucks to ease conditions at two trouble spots in Western Virginia.
New lanes are expected to be open to traffic in Rockbridge County in 2010 and in Montgomery County in 2012 at the soonest, Altizer said.
$57 million project just the beginning
Meanwhile, the state and Norfolk Southern Corp. say they are working to the relieve pressure on the interstate by expanding the freight capacity of the steel highway, a term for railroad tracks.
Beginning this month, crews will tackle a rail bottleneck between Manassas and Front Royal, where freight-train congestion is believed to limit the movement of goods needlessly. The state will spend $40 million and Norfolk Southern $17 million for new track and signal equipment.
When the work is done later this year, it will allow longer and more frequent north-south trains and haul more goods to and from Norfolk’s ports, said NS spokesman Robin Chapman.
State highway analysts predict that the work will result in a reduction of 597,000 truck trips from Virginia highways during the following 15 years.
And that’s for starters.
"This $57 million is just the beginning," said Jennifer Pickett, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.
This spring, state and rail officials expect to consider how even larger investments in rail infrastructure could help driving conditions.
A new study is expected to give the full scope of the truck-diversion opportunity and what further improvements will do the most good. With that in hand, more projects will be considered, Pickett said.
State Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, has proposed legislation to improve funding options to pay for rail investments, but budget pressures have blocked approval. Such investments would have value, he said.
"Probably 30 percent of the long-haul trucks on 81 — they haul freight from one state to another — could potentially be diverted to rails if we could improve the rail system and the infrastructure on the rail system," Edwards said.
Separately, NS is raising tunnel clearances and removing obstructions to haul freight containers two-high along a major east-west, Chicago-Norfolk route known as the Heartland Corridor, which passes through the heart of Virginia.
For instance, crews are raising the ceiling of a 3,302-foot tunnel near the Pulaski County community of Cowan that is the longest of 28 scheduled for work.
In addition, the state and railroad leaders expect to announce the location picked for the construction of an intermodal complex in Western Virginia dedicated to shifting freight containers between truck and rail.
Altizer said such efforts will help but won't solve I-81 congestion issues.
"If you took all the trucks off of I-81, you’d still have to widen I-81 because you got too many cars on it."
Staff writer Mason Adams contributed to this report.
