NORFOLK -- A new vision for improving Interstate 81 went public Thursday, leaving the idea of separate truck lanes in the ditch along with the truck-only tolls that would have paid for them.

The new plan was presented to the Commonwealth Transportation Board by officials of the Virginia Department of Transportation who deal with highways and rails. They said they hope the transportation board will approve the changes next month.

Instead of an eight-lane, border-to-border upgrade that has been studied for three years, the transportation planners said Virginia needs to move faster on I-81 by making safety improvements such as more truck-climbing lanes and longer ramps at a few interchanges.

Rail upgrades are part of the planners' picture, too, with a study led by Norfolk Southern Corp. that could lead to government transportation dollars being used to upgrade tracks on NS' north-south lines.

The quick fixes don't change the need to add lanes to I-81, the transportation planners said. The highway is sure to be heavily congested by 2035, with double today's cars and triple the number of trucks.

However, the concept of an eight-lane highway with tolls on truck-only lanes just won't work and "is not being advanced" in the environmental impact study that is almost complete after three years of work by VDOT, said Pierce Homer, state transportation secretary.

"It's about time," said Jay Smith, a spokesman for the trucking industry, which has fought the truck-only tolls concept since it was proposed in 2002 by Star Solutions, a road builders consortium.

Four members of the transportation board who represent the I-81 corridor echoed the time sentiment. They want something done as quickly as possible. Dana Martin of Roanoke, James Davis of Winchester, Jim Bowie of Bristol and James Lee Keen of Vansant all said the I-81 planning process has taken too long already.

"What I've heard from so many people is, 'What are you waiting for?' " Martin said.

One board member still wants to wait. Peter Schwartz of Delaplane in Northern Virginia said the board seemed to be rushing toward approving the I-81 environmental study at its next meeting, although the rail study, being led by Norfolk Southern, could help decide how many new lanes will be needed on I-81.

Homer said it's time to move, because Virginia needs to use the $140 million it got from Congress last year in the federal transportation bill. The first I-81 studies were done 10 years ago and the current round of studies has been under way three years, Homer said.

Two groups at the meeting Thursday also want the transportation board to delay approving the environmental study.

Michael Testerman, representing the Rail Solution activist group that wants a large-scale rail upgrade in the I-81 corridor, said the current environmental study is flawed because it does not dig deeply enough into rail alternatives.

Testerman urged the board to wait for the rail study, expected to be complete next summer.

Trip Pollard of the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville said his group favors immediate safety improvements and suggested they be approved without the board's full agreement on the environmental statement. Pollard said his group opposes going forward with an environmental study that could add one or two lanes in each direction on I-81 "when you don't have the rail study yet."

Homer and VDOT officials said the environmental study and a separate report by a consultant two years ago agreed on one important concept: Rail upgrades can take only 2 percent to 3 percent of the truck traffic off I-81.

For NS, that would be a significant amount of business. Each 1 percent of truck freight shifted to rail would mean a 10 percent increase in the railroad's container freight shipments in the corridor, said Kevin Page of the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

The rail study would evaluate rails in a five-state, 500-mile corridor from Tennessee to Pennsylvania. It's time frame is faster than the environmental impact analysis VDOT has been conducting for the I-81 corridor, solely in Virginia, and the rail-alone study does not require environmental analysis until it identifies construction sites.