Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Frances Ashley (center), along with Elizabeth Ashley (left) and Emma Jane Satterfield, stop at the Troutville rest area on I-81.

A picnic area is available in Troutville.

Danyel Ransom (left) and James Robinson work at the Troutville rest area, which could close.

Bruce Williams, who buys and sells cars, says that there aren't many places besides a rest area where he can pull in his 36-foot trailer.

As one element of a broad savings plan that also includes reducing employment by 1,500 statewide, the Virginia Department of Transportation is urging the state to close all four rest stops on Interstate 81 in the Roanoke and New River valleys this summer.

"This is the largest involuntary change in organizational structure ever in the history of the department," highway Commissioner David Ekern said Thursday when the budget cuts were announced.

VDOT is recommending the cuts to deal with an expected $2.6 billion shortfall in federal and state transportation revenue. Scores of highway projects have been put on hold. And the changes outlined Thursday take into account the effect of money Virginia will get from the federal stimulus bill.

The job cuts will begin next month, with 450 wage, temporary and hourly positions to be eliminated by the end of June. This will be followed by 1,000 cuts of salaried personnel by the summer of 2010 -- 430 positions in project development and construction management, 415 in general administration and central office and 150 to 160 in maintenance and operations.

The agency said it does not yet know how many of those reductions will occur in Southwest Virginia offices and operations centers. Affected employees have not been notified, officials said.

Overall, the employment reduction plan calls for trimming 16 percent of VDOT's work force, which will fall from about 9,000 to 7,500 people.

VDOT operates in this area organizationally through its 12-county Salem District covering the Roanoke and New River valleys and nearby communities. The district currently employs about 1,030 workers -- 940 classified employees and 90 hourly employees.

It includes a district office, traffic operations, six local VDOT offices called residencies, 13 equipment upkeep and repair shops and 28 maintenance hubs called area headquarters.

In addition to job cuts, in June, the Commonwealth Transportation Board is expected to receive a plan for service cuts. These moves include closing 25 of 41 rest stops and welcome centers, and reducing mowing and safety patrols.

"You will see longer grass if all these changes are made," Ekern said.

James Robinson has worked as a rest area attendant at the Troutville site for about a year. He said his work mostly involves general caretaking and general supervision. He said there's usually one attendant present at all times.

"I knew money was tight, but I didn't know it was that tight," Robinson said Thursday upon learning of the proposed cuts.

Snow and ice removal and emergency response efforts will continue as needed and a resurfacing project planned on I-81 in far Southwest Virginia will go forward, he said.

"Our focus is from the centerline to the edge line," said Ekern, saying he remains committed to VDOT's "core services."

The Roanoke and New River valleys could lose all rest stops. Targeted are the northbound I-81 rest stops at Radford and Ironto and the southbound I-81 rest stops at Troutville and Radford. For I-81 traffic, that would leave open only the rest stops at each end of the state, near Bristol and Winchester, if the plan goes forward.

Louis Keller, from Philadelphia, said he travels through Virginia about a dozen times a year.

"As far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't shut down any of them," Keller said Thursday during a stop at the Troutville site. "Virginia has nice rest areas. The facilities are always clean and some of the larger ones provide many services: maps and information."

Frances Ashley and April Satterfield and five children were headed back to Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday after visiting museums in Washington. They stopped in Troutville to use the restrooms, and Ashley said aside from refueling, "this is our one stop."

Bruce Williams, from Westbrook, Texas, buys and sells used cars and transports them around the country on a 36-foot trailer he tows behind his pickup truck.

"That's a bad deal," he said of the proposed closures. "I'm not a professional driver, but I travel a lot. Without the rest areas, there isn't any place to stop. About the only other place for someone like me to stop is a Wal-Mart parking lot.

"I can't get in just anywhere."

Williams questioned both the safety and the practicality of losing the rest areas.

"Virginia's such a pretty place and there's so much to see," he said. "I would think it would hurt tourism."

The agency is also going to recommend closing 40 percent of equipment repair facilities and 30 percent of central office divisions, documents said.

VDOT plans to hear public comments on the changes March 10 in the Salem area. The time and place will be announced later.

Details of the strategy can be found at www.virginiadot.org.

Staff writer Neil Harvey contributed to this report.