I-81 proposal would create ‘truckway’ for big rigs

Now, after years of indecision about how to improve the safety and efficiency of this interstate, which begins in Tennessee and ends at the Canadian border, it may become the test case for an idea that could alter the scope of the nation’s highway system.

State and federal leaders are moving forward with a plan to build a second four-lane road solely for trucks.

The proposal has galvanized residents, environmentalists and preservationists who are eager to maintain the appeal and historical significance of the Blue Ridge Mountain and Shenandoah Valley regions. State leaders, too, are eager to fix one of their biggest headaches.

Tractor-trailers dominate what has become known as the “NAFTA Highway” — a rolling market of the nation’s products and services. More than a few of the rigs cough gray-black smoke into the air that colors the Blue Ridge.

What ultimately happens here will have profound implications for one of Virginia’s most treasured landscapes and how goods are moved across the nation in the coming decades.

If a truck-only highway goes forward, it will mark a fundamental shift for an interstate system originally built to connect America to itself, not solely to smooth the movement of goods.

“The emphasis for the last 50 years or so was to build a highway system to serve both autos and freight, and as you look out 50 years, those may not always be compatible,” said Pierce R. Homer, Virginia’s deputy transportation secretary and the head of a panel that picked the “truckway” solution for I-81.

“It’s no longer just a part of creating linkages among communities. It’s about managing the movement of commodities in the 21st century. It’s a very, very big deal,” Homer told The Washington Post.

The Virginia portion of I-81 is a roller coaster of a road that runs along the state’s western spine from the mountainous southwest to the West Virginia border north of Winchester. The highway begins at a split from I-40 east of Knoxville, Tenn., and runs 824 miles to Fishers Landing N.Y., at the Canadian border.

This is its appeal to freight haulers. It provides a straight, toll-free shot from the South through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I-81 also bypasses the traffic of most major cities but runs close enough to them that truckers can take a quick turn onto other highways and motor directly to population centers.

The highway has become substantially busier since NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, went into effect in 1994 as more goods have been shipped on north-south routes between Mexico and Canada.

Up to 40 percent of that volume is trucks.

The new roadway would be built by a private consortium called Safer Transport and Roadways (STAR) Solutions, whose $6.4 billion plan calls for doubling I-81 within 15 years with a combination of federal, state and private funds and a proposal to charge tolls. STAR and state officials are negotiating the terms of a contract, and if an agreement can be reached, no other approvals are needed.