-Citing highway safety, tourism and jobs benefits, Bolling encourages VDOT to reprioritize budgeting and find cost saving to keep rest stops open-
-Bolling: “Closing rest stops is not a financial necessity or in the best interest of Virginia”-
Richmond – Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling today called on the Virginia Department of Transportation to reconsider the proposed closure of eighteen Virginia rest stops and one Welcome Center. The rest stops are scheduled to be shut down on Tuesday, June 21.
In a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer, Bolling encouraged VDOT to find savings and reprioritizations in VDOT’s $3.4B budget to find the $8.6M needed to keep the rest stops open in order to maintain the highest level of highway safety and convenience to motorists, support Virginia’s tourism, hospitality and trucking industries and save over 200 Virginia jobs.
“I certainly understand that these are challenging economic times for VDOT and other state agencies,” said Bolling. “However, I am concerned that the closure of these rest stops will eliminate safe, convenient opportunities for motorists to rest; make our highways more dangerous; damage Virginia’s tourism and hospitality industry; put more than 200 Virginians out of work; and increase congestion on secondary roads and at gas stations and restaurants near highways.”
