State officials will announce plans within the next month for improving Interstate 81, Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday during a visit to the Roanoke Valley.

The plans will focus on safety improvements, probably in the most congested areas, Kaine indicated.

Almost certainly, they will not involve truck-only tolls as proposed by builders consortium Star Solutions in 2002.

"We are committed to using the federal earmark that we got in the summer of 2005 in the transportation bill to make improvements that are going to enhance the safety of I-81," Kaine said while visiting the construction site for a smart traffic center near Salem.

"And we have other ideas, and don't be surprised if some of the other ideas concern the use of rail," Kaine said.

Some of the financing could come from safety improvements that Virginia already budgeted over the next six years, Kaine said.

The federal earmark totals $140 million through 2009, a tiny piece of the $7.5 billion Star Solutions said it would cost for the eight-lane concept of I-81 that it first proposed.

The Star Solutions concept, which it suggested financing with tolls solely on trucks, would have provided two lanes in each direction for long-haul trucks passing through Virginia. Tolls would have been in the range of $90 per truck.

The idea of truck-only lanes sustained two major setbacks in the past 15 months, with Congress approving only about $100 million of the $800 million for which Star Solutions lobbied. Also, a Virginia Department of Transportation environmental review showed that six lanes, not eight, would be sufficient along about half of I-81's 325 miles.

Kaine and VDOT officials were close-mouthed about details of the plans to be announced. But members of the Star Solutions consortium are still part of VDOT discussions for I-81, even as the border-to-border, eight-lane concept, appears to fade.

Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, the House majority leader, said he thought Star Solutions still has a role in improving I-81.

"The Star Solutions people moved this whole subject off the starting square. I appreciate that, and I think they should be at the table," Griffith said.

Truck-only tolls almost certainly are not on Kaine's list of good ideas for I-81.

"You have to worry about the effect tolls would have on the overall economy" in the I-81 corridor, Kaine said, particularly in the Staunton area where big-box stores have built distribution centers.

Also, chicken processing plants in the Shenandoah Valley depend on the interstate, and Coors brewery and numerous smaller industries operate in the valley. Coors recently expanded its plant at Elkton.