Commonwealth Chronicle

Searching for safety: The rest stop controversy

For Clyde Huffman, a West Virginia trucker who has been hauling on I-81 for almost 40 years, one of the newest highway hazards is finding a place to rest at night.

The Winchester area is one of the busiest hubs on the Virginia sector of Interstate 81.

Since 2005, long-haul truckers have been required by federal law to rest 10 hours every day. That means they need to find a place to park so they can sleep in the bunks their cabs are outfitted with.

Huffman said he likes the new regulations because they help to reduce fatigue, but they have created more competition for parking spaces. Also, the number of trucks on the road has quadrupled since he started driving in 1976. Available truck parking hasn’t kept up with the demand, said Huffman, who chose life behind the wheel to avoid the West Virginia mines.

“The biggest problem … right now is parking for trucks,” Huffman said. “There is nowhere to park.”

And unfortunately for Huffman, who tries to make it home every weekend to see his 17-month-old granddaughter, the parking problem is about to get worse.

VDOT has decided to close 19 of 41 of its public safety rest areas in a balancing act to attempt to fix a $2.6 billion budget shortfall. Eight of those rest areas set to close are on I-81.

Jeff Caldwell, VDOT chief of communications, said that originally VDOT planned to shut down 25 of its rest areas in order to give the department a large portion of the $15 million it is obligated to cut from its services operation budget – money VDOT uses for roadway maintenance such as mowing, replacing signs and staffing the rest areas.

“It has been one of the most controversial cuts we’ve been looking at,” said Caldwell. In a press release, he said VDOT’s decision to continue to operate six of the rest areas originally slated to close was a compromise between its plans and the concerns of truckers, localities and commuters along its interstates. Four of the 12 rest areas that just barely missed the chopping block are on I-81.

Huffman said that good parking spaces are a necessity now more than ever since the federal regulations changed. But in Virginia especially, Huffman said, parking spaces – private truck stops and public rest areas – simply aren’t there. To further handicap a trucker’s chances of finding a safe place to rest on I-81 is dangerous and just “plain crazy,” said Huffman.

Steve Owings said he’s on the side of the truckers.

“There are nowhere near enough places already for them to rest, and the fact that Virginia is closing the existing places is just a travesty.

“We actually have the truck drivers’ situation foremost in our minds … because frankly, the situation we’ve got now is not only unsafe, it’s immoral,” Owings said.

Caldwell argued that the Commonwealth’s rest areas serve as only 10 percent of available truck parking throughout the state. The real problem, he said, lies in the private sector and lack of parking spaces there. And the proposed closings – which will most likely be passed by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in July – are just a small portion of the sacrifices that the bad economy has forced VDOT to make.

VDOT has held numerous public hearings in localities along I-81. Caldwell said those hearings helped the department assess public opinion about the proposed cuts, including the closing of the rest areas. He received enough feedback from the hearings to fill two file cabinets, he said, and VDOT has reviewed all of the comments it has received.

“This resulted in some changes, which allow us to reach our financial targets while meeting our customers’ most critical needs,” said VDOT Commissioner David Ekern in the same press release.

But even with the revised plan, there will be only six rest areas along the length of the corridor’s 325 miles. Caldwell said there isn’t anywhere else for VDOT to cut funds.

“We have already laid off 20 percent of our work force,” said Caldwell. “Short of that, we don’t know where else to get the money.” Still, Caldwell said, he is trying to help find some respite for the truckers.

Huffman hasn’t seen any respite yet. He says he doesn’t even stop at rest areas along I-81 anymore because he knows he will be fined because of the two-hour limit the state has put on parking. That means truckers like Huffman often resort to considerably more risky parking spots, like Interstate exit ramps.

But you get fined for parking on those too, he said. State troopers wake truckers up all the time to tell them to move on from the rest areas or exit ramps. But that means Huffman and his fellow truckers have to make a dangerous choice: obey the state parking law, or the federal rest time?

And Virginia state police, Huffman said, are not sympathetic.

“You’re told that you need to plan your route better, and to go on through their state,” he said.  “You know, I mean when there’s no parking, there is no parking,”

Darrell Lewis, a trucker who has spent his time on the road hauling gas and hazardous materials, said that he has had many run-ins with state police while parking on I-81 exit ramps.

“I’ve been woken up… at two o’clock in the morning, out on a ramp, not hurting anybody,” Lewis said. “[They say] ‘You’re breaking the law, you gotta go.’ ‘Well, where do I go?’ ‘I don’t know but you can’t stay here.’”

Sgt. Robert Carpentieri, public information officer for the State Police, Salem district, said that in his 20 years as a state trooper he has never asked a trucker to leave a rest area, even if his two-hour hourglass has run out. But when he comes across a truck parked on an exit ramp or along the side of I-81, his duty to enforce safety overrides his compassion.

“If they’re parked on the emergency shoulder and there’s ‘No Parking’ signs we ask them to leave because that creates a traffic hazard,” Carpentieri said.

Carpentieri acknowledged that even without the closing of the rest stops, there just isn’t enough parking for the 40 percent truck traffic that makes up the corridor’s total on an average day.

“I would just say that there probably is not enough parking in truck stops or rest areas for the amount of traffic, truck traffic we have coming through here,” he said.

But Bobby Berkstresser, owner of Lee-Hi, a private truck stop in Rockbridge County, said he thinks the need for more parking is minimal. Lee-Hi, which has 300 parking spaces, and other private truck stops can handle the parking demand, Berkstresser said.

Teresa Fisk, general manager of private truck stop White's, thinks there is enough parking in the private sector for trucks traveling on I-81. (HELEN COUPE/The Rockbridge Report)

“There’s some nights you might have to look [for parking.],”said Berkstresser. “But the private sector has always shown that, in fact, if the business is out there, we’re more than willing to increase the number of parking spots that would be available.”

Others have been clamoring for the commercialization of the rest areas VDOT plans to close as a potential solution to I-81’s parking shortcomings.

Cline said that the privatization proposal is one that he’s heard tossed around a lot. The problem is that it breaks federal law. The law was originally put in place to protect local business communities on and around the interstate by forbidding the private sector to invest in or benefit from public exits. But Cline said he still thinks that the privatization of rest areas should be studied.

Caldwell is on board with exploring commercialization options, too. He said that the Commonwealth Transportation Board petitioned the federal government in March to try to get some dispensation from the law.

But for now, the closing of rest areas on the clogged corridor looms large, and truckers like Huffman and Lewis won’t be seeing any new parking perks. That puts truckers – and the other drivers with whom they share the road – in danger.

“You’re going to find trucks all over the ramps, which is supposed to be illegal anyway,” Lewis predicted. “It’s going to be a problem.”

Searching for safety: Distant decisions

Safety and road design problems facing I-81 won’t be solved only by rumble strips and wider shoulders. Suggestions for long-term improvements have run the gamut – from a big-name consortium’s failed proposal to widen the interstate to a grassroots organization’s clamoring for a rail solution.

But for now, VDOT can afford only the quick fix. Steve Owings said he and others with I-81 agendas hope the highway bill in September will provide the dollars needed to establish longer-lasting solutions.

“We’ve got this once every six years legislative opportunity,” said Owings.