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At least 3 dead, others injured after pileup during snow squall in Pennsylvania

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan came to Hagerstown Thursday bearing gifts, announcing the start of a $105 million project to widen Interstate 81. In partnership with West Virginia, the first phase of construction of the long-sought project, which recently got under way, will expand the heavily traveled interstate to six lanes from U.S. 11 in West Virginia to Md. 63 near Williamsport. "These improvements to I-81 are critical infrastructure investments that will help citizens here in Washington County, across Western Maryland and all across our state go about their daily lives in a faster, more efficient and safer manner," Hogan said...

Dear Gov. Hogan, Rep. Delaney, Rep. Shuster … somebody: I'm Andy Bruns, and I run The Herald-Mail. I need to tell you something disturbing about myself. At least 10 times a week, I put a bullet in the revolver, spin the cylinder, put the gun to my head and pull the trigger. One of these days, the gun will go off. My friends and family will be devastated, and my children will be fatherless. No, I’m not suicidal. I, along with thousands of others in the region, simply commute to work on Interstate 81. The gun is only a metaphor,...

Going 96 mph on a 65-mph highway is enough to land a speeder in serious legal trouble. That’s 31 mph over the speed limit, and it’s the threshold between a regular speeding violation and the more egregious offense of “excessive speeding,” which earns violators a meeting with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that they’ll likely walk out of with a suspended license. On Wednesday night, state police stopped a motorcyclist they said was clocked at 147 mph. That’s 82 mph over the limit. “That is probably the highest speed I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been at PennDOT nine years now,”...

KINGSPORT, Tenn. Motorists are warned to watch their speed on Interstate 81 after they cross into northeast Tennessee. The speed limit has dropped there, starting today. The Tennessee Department of Transportation is posting new lower speed limit signs. The speed limit for truckers will drop from 70-to-55 miles per hour. The new speed limit for everyone else will be 65 miles per hour. The reductions will affect more than 22 miles on I-81 and 12-and-a-half miles on I-26, from the Tennessee-Virginia border to the Sullivan-Washington county line. Local officials requested the change to help bring the county into line with...

One is by rail; two is by sea The United States must prepare for the inevitable day when fuel oil supplies run short. If the White House won't lead, the states should. The Roanoke Times Gov.-elect Tim Kaine's transportation listening tour has brought out the rail enthusiasts along the congested Interstate 81 corridor. The need for massive improvements, including dedicated truck lanes and expensive tolls, could be avoided if only truck traffic were diverted off the highways and onto the railroads, chants the rising chorus of rail enthusiasts. They have a point. But making the case on congestion alone won't...

Fifteen years from now, 28,000 trucks a day, many of them hauling double or triple trailers, may be speeding up and down special truck lanes on Virginia’s Interstate 81, belching tons of carbon monoxide into the Shenandoah Valley each year. Proponents of “toll truckways,” such as the influential libertarian Reason Foundation think tank, believe they are the wave of the future and the answer to the nation’s transportation needs. Today, trucks on the four-lane I-81 account for as much as 40 percent of total traffic, thanks in part to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The road, which has become...