SALEM, Va. – You might be sick of the construction taking place on I-81, but once VDOT is done with its current 65 projects, it’s looking ahead at what else it can do to make the highway safe.
The agency currently has a survey online that you can fill out with what changes you’d like to see, and VDOT is hosting a meeting Thursday night at the Salem Civic Center starting at 5 pm.
“What we’re looking at now is once all this work is done or well on its way to being done, what do we need to do next? Because it does take several years for a decent-sized project to go through the engineering, design work, environmental, right of way, all those kinds of things. So, we wanna make sure we’re identifying a potential next round of projects along the corridor,” said VDOT’s Communication Specialist Ken Slack with the Staunton District.
I-18 has about 70,000 drivers on it each day in the Roanoke-Salem area. Generally, each section of the corridor sees about 50,000 to 70,000 drivers on it daily.
Slack said for this new round, they’ll look at the 325-mile corridor for other potential solutions outside of the projects that have been completed or are about to be completed as part of the current Corridor Improvement Program.
VDOT is looking at making changes to segments in Bristol, Salem and Staunton where the highest rate and severity of crashes have occurred and where there have been the most traffic delays.
There are four meetings taking place, the only one taking place in our viewing area is in Salem on Thursday night.
There are several suggested changes VDOT will present during its meeting on Thursday night, including:
- Extending the acceleration lane at exit 156 Northbound in Troutville, in Botetourt County
- Realigning the road at exits 167 and 168 Northbound in Buchanan
- Widening exits 167 to 150 Southbound in Botetourt County
“Pretty much all of 2025, we’re taking another look. And asking the public, the folks who really use Interstate 81 on a daily basis to walk with us through this process as we try to identify the potential solutions to any lingering trouble spots we have out there,” said Slack.
This is the second round that VDOT is taking a fresh look at I-81. In April, VDOT had an online survey where 4,000 people responded with what changes they would like to see the agency make next. After this current round, VDOT will put together a final report by the end of the year.
“Whether there are any projects that get started or not is up to the Commonwealth Transportation Board and possibly ultimately the General Assembly and Governor,” said Slack.
He said it’s important to make changes to I-81 because it was built more than half a century ago.
“Anybody who knows the Interstate 81 corridor through Virginia knows that it is gradually getting more congestion. We do see a lot of heavy truck traffic that has the highest percentage of commercial trucks traveling up and down 81 of all the Virginia interstates. And between that and the steep terrain that we see through many parts of the corridor, it can be a challenging drive. And so, the time has come for us to make these improvements,” said Slack.
10 News spoke with some of you about what you’d like to see on I-81.
Mecca Saunders said her daughter lives in Blacksburg, and she is always getting stuck in traffic.
“More shoulder room,” said Saunders.
Rebecca Nissen said she is traveling on I-81 a lot, whether it’s to go to work or visit friends.
“Three lanes is the biggest thing for me and keeping trucks out of the left lane,” said Nissen.
Currently, VDOT is working on about 65 projects on I-81.
The current projects include widening the Salem area through exits 137 to 141 to make it three lanes, and that is expected to be completed next year. The widening project between exits 143 and 150 is anticipated to be done by 2031.