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2018 SESSION

18105701D
SENATE BILL NO. 971
Offered January 19, 2018
A BILL to direct the Commonwealth Transportation Board to develop an Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Plan.
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Patrons-- Obenshain, Carrico, Hanger and Vogel; Delegate: Bell, Richard P.
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Referred to Committee on Rules
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. A. 1.  That the General Assembly of Virginia finds that (i) an adequate, efficient, and safe Interstate 81 Corridor is important to the economic well-being of the communities located along the Corridor, (ii) Interstate 81 carries forty-two percent of the all truck vehicle miles traveled in the Commonwealth, (iii) Interstate 81 was designed to carry XX percent truck traffic and current carries XX percent, (iv) there are more than 2,000 crashes annually on Interstate 81 and 30 crashes take more than 6 hours to clear, (v) the lack of parallel routes and automated traffic management systems increase the impact of such crashes on users of Interstate 81, (vi) due to these conditions the Interstate 81 Corridor today does not meet the needs of these communities due to the high volume of truck traffic on the Corridor, and (vii) that current statewide transportation revenues are not sufficient to implement necessary improvements to the Interstate 81 Corridor.

2.  That the Commonwealth Transportation Board shall evaluate the feasibility of using toll financing to improve Interstate 81 throughout the Commonwealth.  Such evaluation shall not consider options that toll all users of Interstate 81 but may consider high occupancy toll lanes pursuant to 33.2-503 and tolls that are restricted to [heavy commercial vehicles].

3.  That the Commonwealth Transportation Board, with the support of the Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment, shall develop and adopt an Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Plan. Such comprehensive plan shall examine the entire length of Interstate 81 and should be financeable with tolls evaluated pursuant to the second enactment of this Act.

B. At a minimum, in the development of such program the Board shall:

1.  Designate specific segments in the corridor for improvement and align such segments with a tolling location;

2.  Identify a targeted set of improvements for each segment that may be financed or funded through revenues generated by the tolls anticipated to be collected in such segment evaluated using the statewide prioritization process pursuant to 33.2-214.1;

3.  Ensure that in the overall plan of expenditure and distribution of toll revenues, each segment’s total long-term benefit shall be approximately equal to the proportion of the total of the toll revenues collected that are attributable to the segment divided by the total of such toll revenues collected;

4.  Study truck travel patterns along the Interstate 81 corridor and develop a tolling policy that minimizes the impact on local truck traffic;

5.  Identify incident management strategies corridor-wide that should be supported by toll revenue;

6.   Identify actions and policies that will be implemented to minimize the diversion of truck traffic from the Interstate 81 corridor, including the prohibition of through trucks on parallel routes; and,

7.  Determine potential solutions to address truck parking needs along the Interstate 81 Corridor.

8. All tolls shall be used only for the benefit of toll payers on I-81.

Enactment Clause: That nothing in this act shall be construed to conflict with the exclusive authority of the General Assembly to approve tolling on components of highways, bridges, or tunnels.