Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that all of Virginia’s 19 shuttered rest stops and welcome centers will begin reopening starting in mid-February. All facilities will be reopened by April 15th.

In a vote this afternoon, the Commonwealth Transportation Board reversed its previous decision from June of last year to reduce the number of state rest stops and welcome centers from 42 to 23. McDonnell joined Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton at today’s meeting of the CTB.

Under the plan approved today, the Virginia Department of Transportation will use $3 million from its maintenance reserve fund to operate the facilities through the remainder of this fiscal year which ends June 30. Long-term funding for the rest areas will be identified as VDOT revises its maintenance budget this spring. The maximum anticipated cost for FY 2011 is $7.5 million.

The administration will continue to work with business leadership around the state to develop an “Adopt a Rest Stop” program to permit private sector contributions to defray operation costs. Additional cost savings will be identified in the current maintenance budget, and the Governor will direct the Department of Corrections to supply non-violent inmate work crews for maintenance, landscaping, and repair of existing rest areas.

Changes the CTB made to truck parking hours and additional 225 truck parking spaces that were added at the 23 facilities that were not closed will not be revisited. These enhanced truck amenities will remain in place and the extended truck parking hours will be in place at all 42 facilities.

A map of the reopened rest areas is available at: http://www.virginiadot.org/news/resources/Statewide/repopen_Map_011510.pdf