Group Details Plan For I-81 Tolls in Va.

img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>New details of a proposal to expand Interstate 81 through Virginia show that it would be one of the most expensive toll roads in the country and that truckers would have to start paying the tolls years before they could use the improved highway.

Star Solutions, a consortium of highway construction firms, said the truck toll rate would be 27.4 cents per mile in 2006. If tolls were imposed today, the rate would be 21 cents per mile, the group said. I-81 runs 325 miles through Virginia, so at 27.4 cents, the one-way toll would be $89.

“A toll of this magnitude will have a tremendous detrimental effect on the trucking companies and businesses that depend on I-81,” said Jay Smith a spokesman for a group called Smart Solutions, organized to oppose truck-only toll lanes on the interstate.