State will mothball rest stops for possible reopenings
TREVOR WRAYTON/VDOT
The rest stop south of Ladysmith on northbound Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County is among those slated for closure.
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It's a long shot, but Virginia officials are hoping that they will be able to find a way to reopen 19 closed rest stops on the state's interstate highways in a couple of years.
The state is going to mothball until at least 2011 the 18 rest areas and one welcome center slated for closure and eventual demolition because of budget cutbacks.
"We want to wait till we exhaust all options on commercialization [of the rest areas] before we make the decision to get rid of all of them," said Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
However, federal law prohibits the commercialization of rest areas along interstate highways, except for placing vending machines in rest stops, said Cathy St. Denis, a Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman. Facilities established before 1960 are exceptions to the law.
The rest stops' primary service is free public toilets. They also provide a place for truckers to nap, tourists to pick up brochures for attractions, families to picnic, and dogs to relieve themselves.
Long-distance travelers stopping at the Ladysmith rest areas on Interstate 95 in Caroline County yesterday were dismayed at the coming closings.
"We use them a lot," said Sandra Jacobs from Hamilton, Ontario. She and her husband, Stan, and their two dogs stopped at Ladysmith on their way back to Canada after one of their frequent visits to their daughter in North Carolina.
"These are so much better than we have in Canada," Stan Jacobs said. "In Canada, you pretty much got to run to the bushes."
In the Richmond area, in addition to the Caroline rest stops, VDOT will close two areas on Interstate 64 in Goochland County and two on Interstate 85 in Dinwiddie County. The two stops on I-64 in New Kent County are among the 23 rest areas and welcome centers that will remain open.
VDOT will be putting the 19 closed stops into mothballs -- stripping out useful items, turning off utilities, draining the plumbing, boarding up the buildings and putting up steel gates -- at an estimated cost of $570,000, Caldwell said.
The 18 rest areas are to be closed July 21 and the I-66 West Welcome Center at Manassas on Sept. 16.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board has cut the state's six-year transportation program by $2.6 billion to make up for recession-driven revenue shortfalls.
Closing the rest stops is part of VDOT's plan to make ends meet this year and should save about $8.6 million, officials said.
Putting the soon-to-be closed highway rest stops back in operation eventually "would be our hope," state Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said yesterday. "But absent a change in federal law or an infusion of transportation funding, that's not likely."
The state's tourism industry wants to give it a try.
"We're hoping to keep that dialogue open with VDOT . . . to keep the rest areas open permanently," said Megan Svajda with the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association.
The group hopes to find ways to help finance the state highway agency, she said, beyond the motor-fuels tax, transportation's chief revenue source in Virginia.
Though the General Assembly has failed to come up with a fix for the state's transportation woes three times in the past four years, "their ears are a little more open than in the past," Svajda said.
A powerful coalition of truck stops, fast-food restaurants, gas stations and the visually handicapped doing business at locations near interstate highway exits has blocked all earlier efforts in Congress to commercialize the rest areas.
"When the state is operating a business that is on the right of way, it really hurts the businesses at the [interstate] exits," said Holly Alfano, vice president for government affairs with the National Association of Truck Stop Operators. "It's not a level playing field."
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine wants Congress to allow commercialization of rest stops, said his spokesman, Gordon Hickey, but he has ruled out taking money from other state functions to pay for keeping the travel facilities open.
"Transportation is a self-funded agency," Hickey said. The governor "is not going to take money from public safety and education and social services and put it into transportation."
"We obviously have communicated to local governments and private industry that we would be open and receptive to local or private funding" to keep the rest areas open, Homer said.
"No one stepped up."
Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or
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Reader Reactions
MARCLIPS-Are u kidding me? You actually go in the woods to do your business when you travel via Va. roads? That’s nasty and I would hope a police officer catches you and cites you. People who have been toilet trained can hold it and your agruement has no basis whatsoever. As a previous poster noted everyone wants all kinds of services from the State but they don’t want to pay for them and another poster said your taxes go into a general fund. Its great that you can do math but please do your business in private and not in the woods!
Jim23832: for starters, your state income taxes largly goes to the general fund. Rest areas are financed by the Highway Maintenance & Operating Fund which gets its revenue largly from; gas tax, motor vehicle sales and use tax, and a list of about 2 dozen revenue streams… but not from the general fund.
Secondly, the tax on gasoline has not changed since the 80’s (not even for inflation) so the purchasing power of that revenue has been eroding ever since.
Lastly, those revenues are dropping off at an alarming rate because people have reduced their driving, or are purchasing cars with better milage, or not buying new cars. So, this isn’t a scheme by the democratic party… it’s VDOT’s management telling the Commonwealth Transportation Board and the Transportation Secretary that VDOT won’t be able to pay it’s bills with the current forecasts, so let’s not spend money we won’t have!
DO THE MATH!!!!! Unemployment up 3 to 4% (from 5% to 9%), but 45% of the rest stops are being shut down? This gross disproportionate reduction in service is just the Virginia democrat’s way of screwing its citizens and amounts to nothing more that a scheming way to hide a tax increase by cutting service. Cutting service is the same as a tax increase, especially when it’s so disproportionate!
Hate Richmond… I would love to see the rest stops run by private entities.. even if it were along the lines of a lease where the state retains ownership. As other poster’s mentioned it would require Congress to change things.. unfortunately, we can’t make those decisions at the state level. Another reason why we should have less federal govt intervention in state matters. I believe they (fed govt) wanted these rest areas to be freely available to everyone at no cost. They make exceptions for allowing limited vending at these locations. Allowing a vendor to operate these stops and sell goods and services as long as the “free” services were still maintained at no cost to the travelers (parking for rest, restrooms, picnick areas etc..) would be a step in the right direction. Generally, these areas are much easier to get in and out of.. right on the interstate. A lot of times you have to hope that the exit you are taking will have gas w/in a reasonable area with facilities that you would consider “safe”.
Several comments here about using private facilities off of the interstate for rest stops. Have these people ever used these facilities? If they have their standards are a lot lower than mine. I travel extensively throughout these United States and I appreciate that the majority of the states provide clean, secure areas for taking necessary breaks. If current revenues are insufficient to fund these facilites then other means should be found. Either increase road use taxes or do like they do in other states and rent space to private industry to support the rest areas. Travel around the Chicago area and you will find commercial firms serving the public at their “Oasis” rest areas and footing the bill for part of the costs. As far as the comment that the three or four employees sitting around would be out of work, I ask, would you be willing to do what they do for what they make?
I don’t see why we don’t privatize the rest stops. I’ll bet McD’s and other fast food chains would jump at that kind of captive audience.
hater: following up with previous post… to get the law changed would require an act by congress, and I just don’t see that happening.
Raise Virginia’s gas tax. It’s the 12th lowest in the US. Car drivers like their government subsidized welfare roads and rest areas but they don’t like to pay their fair share for them. When there’s a revenue shortfall like this, they get all whiny and blame the governor like it’s his fault the economy took a dive off a cliff. Guess what, if people want this stuff then someone has to pay for it and that someone is the user.
haterichmond: like it says in paragraph 4 above, privitization of rest areas (or service areas, as they are called) are illegal on interstates. They work in PA, OH and NJ turnpikes because those are toll roads!
Privatization of rest areas should be allowed. It works on the Ohio Turnpike and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This could save the states big time money while improving service. Isn’t this the smart conservative thing to do? I thought conservatives wanted smaller government?
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