Sinkhole backs up traffic for 15 miles on I-81 near Lexington
By Lynn R. Mitchell | Thursday, May 5th, 2011 | Virginia
After a sinkhole was discovered Wednesday afternoon on the northbound side of I-81 north of Lexington in Rockbridge County, both lanes were shut down and traffic was routed onto Rt. 11 North.
Two lanes of traffic inching along that secondary road for miles made huge traffic jams and driver headaches along with overheated vehicles as VDOT worked to reopen the interstate.
Traveling with a friend to Lexington today on business, we were caught up in the traffic delay on Rt. 11 while as we drove back to Staunton, creeping along on a trip that took almost 45 minutes to drive 20 miles.
By 2:00 Thursday afternoon, one lane of I-81 North was reportedly reopened, and the other lane was expected to be opened sometime Thursday evening.
Sinkholes are not unusual on I-81 in the Shenandoah Valley and, amazingly, are generally found before they cause damage to vehicles. The Valley is full of limestone underground caves and sinkholes often occur when there has been excessive rain. As was the case with this one, they are excavated and filled with stone and dirt, then repaved and monitored for stability.
The detour is located between Exit 195 in Lexington and Exit 213 at Greenville in Augusta County.
Photo by Lynn R. Mitchell
5 May 2011
Cross-posted at SWAC Girl
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About the author
As SWAC Girl (an acronym for Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County), Lynn has been writing in the Virginia political blogosphere since 2006. Active in area politics, she has coordinated campaigns and served in leadership for the past decade. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is one of the most beautiful places to call home ... the Republican Party carries her beliefs.
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7 Responses to "Sinkhole backs up traffic for 15 miles on I-81 near Lexington"
Can I see a show of hands of everyone who doesn’t think that we need to raise the gas tax to fund highway improvements?
I thought Obama’s trillion dollar slush fund was supposed to take care of all this stuff.
Quite frankly I’m not sure given the ubiquity of travel in the 21st century that it makes sense to have any specific transportation tax including the gas tax or the latest from the Dems, the mileage tax. Why not pay it out of general revenue? My thought is that use taxes make more sense when a narrow set of users is doing something that requires infrastructure or maintenance e.g. hunters, general aviation. These transportation taxes tend to be very regressive and punish people for their circumstance of having to go places.
Also to answer HisRoc more specifically, if we got rid of all the Mickey Mouse envirobunny regs we probably have enough money now to pay for everything needed.
“These transportation taxes tend to be very regressive and punish people for their circumstance of having to go places.”
Uh-huh. And sales taxes tend to be very regressive and punish people for their circumstance of having to eat every day and not go naked. And property taxes tend to be very regressive and punish people for their circumstance of having to sleep indoors at night. And payroll taxes tend to be very regressive and punish people for their need to be insured against catastrophic illness and disability.
C’mon, val. TANSTAAFL.
HisRoc,
I am strong in my support for an increase in the fuel tax. However I doubt that had we increased the fuel tax, this type of occurrence could be completely avoided.
What an increase in the fuel tax would enable is improving traffic flow in areas with chronic backups as well as not allowing our bridges and overpasses to continue to deteriorate.
It is my opinion that VDOT does a pretty remarkable job of maintaining the existing interstates with the limited funding they are given. Most truckers that travel throughout our nation and who are aware of the differences in funding levels agree with me. VDOT also does a pretty good job of snow removal in the winter. This is why I am confident that if we raise the fuel tax, the additional money we give VDOT will be spent well. Here in Virginia, we truckers get bang for our buck.
I hope they get this fixed before I head down to Radford this weekend.
LD,
I agree with your assessment of Virginia’s superiority in road maintenance. By contrast, in Pennsylvania the state flower is the pothole and in Michigan the state tree is the orange construction barrel.
I was being somewhat obtuse about my reference to I-81. Better highway funding may or may not have prevented this sinkhole. But I-81 has a more compelling problem. It is by far the most dangerous stretch of interstate highway in Virginia. That is largely because of the combination of the frequent fog and the mix of passenger vehicles and 18-wheelers. VDOT has proposed building separate truck lanes on I-81 to lower the accident rate. That proposal will probably never see the light of day until we have better transportation funding.
HisRoc
I wish I had your eloquence. That was beautifully done. Well written, to the point, factually correct. Damn that was good. Go easy on Val (and me if I look like that big a fool).
However, I think PWN’D would have been more appropriate.
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