NBC29Closed Rest Stops Putting Drivers to the Test

Closed Rest Stops Putting Drivers to the Test

Drivers on the road through Virginia are being put to the test for the first big travel weekend since the commonwealth closed rest stops to cut costs. Drivers, truckers, mini-vans full of families are all experiencing the rest stop shutdown.

VDOT closed 18 rest stops at the end of July, including the two along Interstate 81 in Augusta County. The closings are saving the state $9-million.

Right now the only stops, without getting off the interstate are 125 miles apart -  from the welcome center at the West Virginia state line to the Fairfield stop in Rockbridge County. Because of the closed rest stops, more car doors are opening at the Fairfield rest stop along I-81 in Rockbridge County.

Ivan Hula is driving back to Kansas. “I have a couple more days of driving and I get very sleepy driving and so I take advantage of the rest stops a little bit until I get to the next one,” he stated.

But with two southbound I-81 rest stops closed in New Market and Mount Sidney, that means our Kansas driver has even longer to wait for a break. Hula said, “A lot of people were taking advantage of them and I think they're very necessary to the tourists.”

And he's not the only one who had a longer wait. Driver Scott Stultz said, “I wasn't even aware that there were rest stops closed, but I did see just before we pulled up to this one, there was a sign that said next rest stop 99 miles and I figured, OK, good time to stop.”

Mary Windsor is the weekend supervisor at the Fairfield rest stop. She says there have been three times as many people stopping here now that the neighboring rest areas are closed.

“It was packed all day from 6 o'clock yesterday to when I left at 2, it was still packed and it stays like that pretty much all the time,” she stated.

That's why Windsor wants to put a stop to the closings and re-open the rest stops. The supervisor tells us that before the closings about 200 people per day stopped at the Fairfield rest area. Now, she says that number has increased to about 1,500 per day.

The rest stop closures has become a top issue on the campaign trail. Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds both say they will re-open the stops. Their plans differ on the time it would take to do that. Deeds says he'd have the rest stops open within 60 days of taking office. McDonnell says it would take 90 days.

Reported by Kim Saltmarsh
See Bio / Email