Delaying close of rest areas costs Virginia

The Virginia Department of Transportation won’t save quite as much money this year by closing interstate rest areas as it intended.

VDOT decided to keep some interstate public stops open past the start of the state’s fiscal year on July 1 to avoid some adverse impacts on summer tourism.of

“We didn’t want confusion for holiday traffic,“ state Transportation Department spokesman Jeff Caldwell said Monday.

The department had said that closing the facilities would save the state about $9 million this year.

But keeping the doors of 18 rest areas open until July 21 and the I-66 West Welcome Center at Manassas open until Sept. 16 will reduce that savings by about $436,000, Caldwell said, making the net cost reduction about $8.6 million from the closures.

The Virginia Department of Transportation began putting up electronic signs Monday warning motorists that the 18 interstate rest areas are shutting down.

The closures—next to the increasingly ubiquitous potholes on state-maintained roads—will be perhaps the most visible evidence of the recession’s impact on Virginia’s transportation finances.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board is cutting the number of interstate highway rest areas from 42 to 23 because of a $2.6 billion shortfall in transportation revenues.

“It’s a matter of the tough priority-setting we’ve got to do,“ state Transportation Commissioner David S. Ekern said. “We are prioritizing . . . basic emergency services . . . and maintenance of pavement and bridges.“

While the average distance between rest areas nationally is 50-60 miles, Ekern said, Virginia’s will now be about 120 miles.

For instance, with the closures, eastbound motorists will face a 108-mile drive on Interstate 64 from the Charlottesville rest area through Richmond to the New Kent stop. A northbound traveler on Interstate 81 will have a 128-mile trip from the Virginia Welcome Center in Bristol to the next rest area at Ironto in Montgomery County.

About 44 million visitors use the state’s 42 rest stops annually, the department estimates.

Private companies operate Virginia’s rest areas under contract to VDOT. However, with the exception of some facilities established before 1960, federal law prohibits service stations and other commercial establishments on the interstate system.

Virginia is not alone in shutting rest areas. Colorado, Louisiana, Maine and Vermont have also closed rest stops as cost-saving measure. Other states are considering it, the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials in Washington said.

To help truckers, VDOT plans to add 225 truck parking spaces at the remaining 23 rest areas and welcome centers July 21. The state highway agency will also remove signs that had restricted vehicles to two-hour parking limits, so truck drivers will be better able to get their mandated 10 hours of rest.

VDOT will keep the I-66 West Manassas Welcome Center open through the summer travel season, the state highway agency said, because it was the only such tourist information center slated for closure.