ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton (left) and Matt Strader, the assistant secretary of transportation, ride in a VDOT van during a tour of sites of district projects, funded largely with federal stimulus grants.

Representatives of all six states along the nearly 900-mile Interstate 81 corridor would gather in the Roanoke Valley this fall to discuss common issues around the interstate's traffic and outlook under a proposal from the state's transportation chief.

Secretary Sean Connaughton said Wednesday that he is inviting the transportation leaders of Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York to continue work begun two years ago on a plan to improve the I-81 corridor.

Virginia will propose that the transportation meeting take place in the Roanoke Valley in October, said Heidi Underwood, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Connaughton spoke as local VDOT officials showed him several multimillion-dollar highway projects pegged for the Roanoke and New River valleys -- the most construction activity seen in the region in nearly 10 years.

I-81 has been statistically the safest interstate in Virginia in recent years but is still the scene of about 25 deaths annually.

Heavy-duty trucks mostly going to and from the Northeast make up about a quarter of all vehicles, speeding is an everyday occurrence and a forecast has said the road must be widened to avoid gridlock. Some rail advocates are calling for major investments in trains and track to reduce truck-delivered freight.

Although Virginia is the state with the most miles of I-81 (a stretch of some 325 miles from Bristol to Winchester), I-81 extends 855 miles from near Knoxville, Tenn., to northern New York.

Some of the communities in other corridor states are also grappling with traffic volumes on I-81, concerns about the number of wrecks, large numbers of heavy-duty trucks loaded with freight and questions about how best to invest public dollars in railroads.

Add in such issues as the maintenance of I-81's nearly 1,500 bridges (75 percent of which are 40 years old or older), stopping the transportation of illegal drugs and protecting the environment, and there is a universe of corridorwide needs.

The six corridor states pledged their mutual cooperation on common interstate issues in 2008. Connaughton is now calling for another meeting of the I-81 Regional Commerce Corridor States.

During his visit to the region, Connaughton helped with a ceremonial groundbreaking for the widening and straightening of U.S. 221 in Back Creek, saw a new roundabout on Merriman Road and rode past the Elm Avenue interchange slated for a nearly $20 million makeover.

Riding in a VDOT van, he also saw U.S. 11/460 in Glenvar pegged for widening at a cost of $45 million, the Elliston pasture earmarked for an intermodal rail yard -- under Montgomery County challenge before the Virginia Supreme Court -- and the site of a future $90 million truck-climbing lane on I-81 near Ironto.

In Christiansburg, he saw recently widened Virginia 114 and the site of a proposed roundabout at U.S. 460 and Southgate Drive near Virginia Tech. Not on the tour, but no less significant, Narrows will get a new $15 million bridge over the New River.

"You're going to see a lot of construction going on around here," Connaughton said.

Jobs now under way, recently completed or coming up soon total nearly $300 million.

Richard Caywood, administrator for VDOT's 12-county Salem District, said the projects are noteworthy for their expensive cost but also years of behind-the-scenes work by staffers.

The last, comparable batch of construction activity was the $63 million widening of I-81 at exit 118 and the $54 million U.S. 460 bypass, which were finished in 2002, said Michael Russell, assistant administrator in the Salem District. It's all being paid for with federal stimulus grants and regular highway dollars.

Everyone seems to be talking about I-81.

The state highway leader group that Connaughton hopes to bring back together bears a name similar to the I-81 Corridor Coalition, which is making a parallel effort from the ground up by involving police, emergency medical services and economic development agencies, as well as state and federal officials.

The I-81 Corridor Coalition said it will meet separately on Nov. 15 and 16 at a place to be announced near Hagerstown, Md., or Martinsburg, W.Va.

"These efforts are both worthwhile. Both have many of the same objectives," said Rick Rovegno, a county commissioner in Pennsylvania and I-81 Corridor Coalition leader.

If the coalition is invited to the October Roanoke meeting, its members will be interested in attending, said Rovegno, who sees a basis for exploring the merger of the two groups.