I-81 Will Not Have Truck-Only Toll Lanes, Paper Says

After years of study, Interstate 81 in Virginia will not contain separate truck-only lanes, the News-Virginian newspaper reported Sunday.

The Virginia Department of Transportation continues to follow the October 2006 directive of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which has ruled out trucks-only lanes, the paper reported on its Web site.

The trucks-only proposal came from STAR Solutions, a team of Virginia construction and engineering firms that had offered a $13 billion project to add two lanes in either direction on I-81, including separate ones for trucks, the paper said.

According to VDOT, I-81 traffic has tripled in the past 20 years, and the percentage of truck traffic has dramatically increased, sometimes to 40% of interstate traffic, the News-Virginian reported.