A new transportation study recommends the addition of truck climbing lanes on Interstate 64 where it crosses Afton Mountain.
The second phase of the Virginia Statewide Multimodal Freight Study concludes truck lanes in that steep area of I-64 would “reduce congestion and improve safety.”
About 35,000 vehicles travel the highway each day between Charlottesville and Waynesboro, according to the study. About 10 percent are trucks.
The study, three years in the making, found Virginia’s existing transportation plan has not connected business growth trends to transportation demands that go beyond, “simply projecting future demand from … traffic counts.”
“[The plan] has also lacked the ability to assign impact or value to the freight transportation industry regarding growing congestion, or planned transportation improvements,” the report states.
The study presents $5.6 billion in near-term projects already underway or that have funding. Another $14.6 billion in projects are identified through 2035, some of which are proposed for the first time in the study.
Climbing lanes over a 10-mile stretch of I-64 have a price tag of $51.4 million in the study. The project is classified as high-ranking, but long-term.
Among Interstate 81 findings, the report identifies the truck climbing lanes being added in Rockbridge County as important to alleviating congestion. Trucks make up about 25 to 35 percent of I-81 traffic.
A key change for I-81 will be the completion of Norfolk Southern’s Crescent Corridor, which would allow some truck traffic to be diverted, according to the report. A $2.1 billion set of improvements are underway for that corridor, from New Orleans to New Jersey.
Freight tonnage in the I-64 and I-81 corridors is carried 80 percent by trucks.
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