Photos by MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

The Radford-area rest stop on Interstate 81 was built 40 years ago and was renovated in 2007. It costs an average of $350,000 a year to operate and features a pet trail and 10 picnic tables.

On Tuesday, Leigh Wolcott and Mike Hendrick, truckers with Arctic Express, were the among the last customers to use the rest area outside Radford on northbound Interstate 81. Virginia's rest area network fell from 42 locations to 24, all as part of a larger cost-cutting strategy.

VDOT crewmen Darrell Sowers (left) and Sid Scott place barrels on Interstate 81 as part of a rest area's closing process.

Photos by MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Ronnie Akers (right) of the Virginia Department of Transportation maneuvers a closed sign into place at a Radford-area rest stop.

Motorists grumbled. State leaders argued. No one seemed to like what was happening.

But, as expected, the Virginia Department of Transportation followed through on state budget cuts by closing 18 of Virginia's interstate rest areas Tuesday, including the rest area on northbound Interstate 81 near Radford and the rest area on southbound I-81 at Troutville.

The final few vehicles to enter the Radford rest area Tuesday morning included a chartered bus that let off a large group of Tennessee residents heading to a family reunion in Norfolk.

If the area had not been open, "it'd have been a real serious issue," said Cornelius Fears of Chattanooga.

"I guess we'd have to use the woods."

In spite of being told the plan will compromise the desirability and safety of vehicular travel in Virginia, state leaders are eliminating almost half of the commonwealth's rest areas.

The cuts will save $9 million a year as part of a larger cost-cutting strategy that also includes delaying construction projects, laying off employees and closing highway department offices.

The rest area network fell from 42 locations to 24 Tuesday. I-81 lost seven of its 14 rest areas. The 158-mile stretch of I-81 between the Roanoke Valley and Tennessee state line, which had eight rest areas, now has four. One more Virginia rest stop, on I-66 in Northern Virginia, is scheduled to close in September.

Two hundred contracted rest area employees will either lose their jobs or be reassigned as a result of the closures, VDOT spokeswoman Heidi Underwood said.

Within hours of the closings, some of the state's leaders resumed an ongoing debate.

"Point made. Now reopen the rest areas," read a statement issued by Lon Anderson, an official with AAA Mid-Atlantic in Richmond, calling the closures "a new low point in Virginia's transportation budget wars."

In a news release, state Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, accused Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, of "playing politics with Virginia's rest areas and the safety of Virginia's drivers."

His release said Kaine did too little to persuade Congress to allow Virginia to turn over its rest areas to private operators and, as a result, a congressional committee voted last week to deny the state that authority.

Gary Morehead, who travels often in a motor home, illustrated why the rest areas were built on the interstates years ago, how they support the motoring public and why they will be missed by some.

Tuesday, he spent the night at the northbound I-81 Radford area, which was built 40 years ago and renovated for $318,367 in fall 2007 with improvements such as new restroom fixtures, tiles and windows. It costs an average of $350,000 a year to operate and features a pet trail and 10 picnic tables.

"I pulled in here about 11 o'clock last night because I couldn't go any farther," he said at the Radford area, which serves an estimated 1 million users a year.

"We've just come 1,800 miles. I was tired."

He poured a quart of oil into the engine of his 38-foot motor home while his wife walked their two dogs in the grass. Rested, they headed for their home in Rhode Island.

Truck driver Brian McCawley had been asleep in the Radford rest area since shortly after he parked at 2:10 a.m. Tuesday.

He was awakened by the sound and lights of a crew removing signs as a precursor to the shutdown. Told the rest area was about to shut down, he said, "That's crazy."

"We have to take our 10-hour breaks. What are we supposed to do?" asked McCawley, who was hauling an industrial solution to a Roanoke chemical plant.

Trucks welcome a VDOT plan to add some truck parking spaces at operating rest areas to make up for the ones being lost, but they say the state has a long way to go.

"There ain't enough truck parking as it is. Now they just made it worse," said Mike Hendrick, a trucker from near Buffalo, N.Y.

Virtually all truck parking places are taken by 10 p.m. every day at all interstate rest areas and at private truck areas, he said. Truckers can choose to park illegally on an interstate ramp and risk a parking ticket or look for a parking spot at a retailer such as Wal-Mart, which sometimes kicks trucks out and sometimes lets them stay, Hendrick said.

Fortunately, two convenience stores north of the closed Radford rest area said they welcome the possibility of more vehicular traffic. They stand to get some. The northbound rest area before Radford, at Rural Retreat, closed, too.

Cashiers at Southgate Market and Radford Travel Center located at mile marker 109 said motorists may use the bathrooms even if they don't buy anything.

"I know they need to be painted," said Kim Blankenship, cashier at Southgate Market.

Neither store has marked, handicapped parking. The Radford Travel Center has one handicapped-accessible stall in each the men's and women's restrooms.

But the food is good. Both Southgate and Radford Travel Center serve hot breakfast biscuits and a variety of snacks and beverages.

However, motorists better stop in before it gets late. Neither Southgate Market nor the Radford Travel Center is open all night like a rest area.