Huge Traffic Jam on I-81

**Burton_VT_07** · December 11th, 2005, 12:57 AM

I think it's I-81 that everyone traveled on to get to JMU....but what was the whole problem? does anyone know why we had to take that 2 to 3 hour detour?

**N2SPORTS** · December 11th, 2005, 08:57 AM

It was an 18 wheeler wreck around mile marker 126.They shut down I-88 south from exit 132 down to exit 118.We got there kind of early and just got delayed about 1 hour.

**Burton_VT_07** · December 11th, 2005, 10:21 PM

It doesnt surprise me that an 18-wheeler wrecked with all the trucks and congestion there was

I think we went about 1 mile in 1 hour
and then once we took the detour and got back to the Interstate it took another hour
instead of gettin home at 9:30 we got home at 11:30

**imported_elp6n** · December 11th, 2005, 10:29 PM

This is yet another example of why the speed limit is lower in that stretch

Roanoke Times

I-81 lanes close for hours for wreck recovery

A section of Interstate 81 near the Dixie Caverns exit was closed twice on Saturday to retrieve a tractor-trailer that on Friday crashed through the guardrail and rolled down a 60-foot embankment.

The southbound lanes of I-81 were closed for two and a half hours Saturday morning between Exit 132 and Christiansburg's Exit 118 as workers hauled the tractor-trailer up the embankment onto the roadway, said Chuck Lionberger, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The same stretch of roadway was closed a second time about 4 p.m. for four hours to attach the tractor-trailer to a tow truck and haul it away, Lionberger said. Southbound traffic was detoured to U.S. 11/460, where drivers could rejoin the interstate at Christiansburg's Exit 118, he said.

Friday's accident occurred as a result of backup from another tractor-trailer accident near the 123 mile marker that closed both southbound lanes for nearly three hours that day.

-- Christina Rogers