The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

State News

September 4, 2010

Six-state summit on I-81 proposed

Associated Press

ROANOKE, Va. — Virginia’s transportation chief wants to hold a summit in the fall with representatives of all six states along the 855-mile Interstate 81 corridor.

Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton told The Roanoke Times the goal would be to continue work on a plan to improve the corridor.

He has invited the transportation chiefs of Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York to gather in Virginia.

Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Heidi Underwood says the proposed meeting would be held in October in the Roanoke Valley.

The six states pledged in 2008 to cooperate on common I-81 issues, such as congestion and bridge maintenance.

Communities along the corridor are grappling with traffic volumes on the interstate, concerns about the number of wrecks, large numbers of heavy-duty trucks loaded with freight and questions about how best to invest public dollars in railroads.

Also of concern is how to maintain I-81’s nearly 1,500 bridges, stopping the transportation of illegal drugs and protecting the environment. About 75 percent of the interstate’s bridges are 40 years old or older.

The highway group Connaughton hopes to bring together bears a name similar to the I-81 Corridor Coalition.

The coalition is working to bring police, emergency medical services and economic development agencies and state and federal officials together to discuss the highway.

The Coalition plans to hold a meeting Nov. 15 and 16 in either Hagerstown, Md., or Martinsburg, W.Va. “These efforts are both worthwhile. Both have many of the same objectives,” said Rick Rovegno, a county commissioner in Pennsylvania and I-81 Corridor Coalition leader. Rovegno said there may be a basis for combining the two groups.

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