Governor Seeks To Remove I-81 Toll Threat
Local Groups Praise Request to Shift Toll Authority to I-95
For immediate release -- May 11, 2010
Contacts:
Kate Wofford, SVN: 540-303-7404
Elizabeth Stern, SVBF: 540-740-4545
New Market, VA – The Shenandoah Valley may be spared the threat of massive highway widening on I-81 as Gov. Bob McDonnell asked federal highway officials Tuesday to switch state tolling authority to the I-95 corridor. Such a move would make it almost impossible to raise the nearly $12 billion that would enable state plans to expand I-81 to eight to twelve lanes.
“This is a tremendous relief to local governments, civic, and business groups arguing for the past eight years that we can’t afford costly tolls on cars and trucks for a destructive plan to expand I-81,” said Kate G. Wofford, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Network of conservation groups.
Federal officials granted Virginia the authority to levy tolls on I-81, as part of the planning process to fund widening all 325 miles of the interstate. However, the state legislature passed a measure in 2007 requiring General Assembly approval before state transportation officials could toll I-81.
“Valley residents have consistently said that they want neither the tolls on I-81 nor the excessive widening that the tolls would fund,” said Wofford. “We agree that I-81 needs improvements as well as expanded rail freight service to get more trucks off the highway, but these goals are achievable without tolling Valley residents, businesses, and visitors,” Wofford said.
Last month the Governor approved the sale of $500 million in bonds to fund transportation projects around the Commonwealth, including truck climbing lane projects in the I-81 corridor.
“Tolling facilities in the Shenandoah Valley—where the mountains, rivers, and historic resources are so close to the interstate—do not make sense,” said W. Denman Zirkle, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. “So we are glad to see what appears to be the beginning of the end of those plans. We hope that this conversation leads to a more reasonable focus on highway and rail improvements that deliver more bang for our transportation dollars.”
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Shenandoah Valley Network (SVN) is a nonprofit program that provides support to local community groups working on land protection, land use and transportation issues in six Virginia counties: Frederick, Warren, Shenandoah, Page, Rockingham and Augusta.
As authorized by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation serves as the non-profit manager of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, partnering with local, regional, and national organizations and governments to preserve the Valley’s battlefields and interpret and promote the region’s Civil War story.
Created by Congress in 1996, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District encompasses Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia and the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester. The legislation authorizes federal funding for the protection of ten battlefields in the District: Second Winchester, Third Winchester, Second Kernstown, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook, New Market, Cross Keys, Port Republic, and McDowell.
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ON THE WEB:
Shenandoah Valley Network:
www.svnva.org
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District:
www.ShenandoahAtWar.org
National Park Service 1992 study of the Shenandoah Valley’s Civil War battlefields:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/shenandoah/svs0-1.html
Virginia Department of Transportation (interstate highway planning information)
http://www.virginiainterstates.org/
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