How to deal with the increasing number of trucks driving up and down Interstate 81 is what the Harrisonburg City Council considered Tuesday night.

Council members passed a resolution endorsing a type of rail that may ease the problem. The resolution calls for federal legislators to fund a pilot program and study in the Shenandoah Valley.

I-81 keeps getting busier. Susan Colburn has made trips up and down the interstate for the last 15 years and she's seen a lot of things change.

"Heavier trucks, heavier loads, and more aggressive drivers," says Colburn.

She supports widening the interstate by adding a lane on both sides.

"There's people that want to do the speed limit and just want to stay along, but they can't because [of] the trucks being in the way," says Colburn.

However, there are concerns with that idea. Elizabeth Stern is with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. I-81 already runs through seven battlefields the foundation oversees.

"Depending on what option they look at, hundreds if not maybe thousands of acres could be impacted by widening options. So, you would lose the actual ground where people fought and died," says Stern.

More than 50 governing bodies in Virginia and Tennessee have voted in support of rail.

"The key to make a rail system of this size work is to do it across state boundaries," says Harrisonburg Mayor Kai Degner.

The proposal is called a 21st century steel interstate. If implemented, truckers would literally drive onto the rail system and be transported through the Valley. There would also be increased passenger rail.

Part of the study would be figuring out the best location for something like this.

"We certainly would not like to see any negative impact to the battlefields from any of these options," says Stern.

Officials with the Virginia Department of Transportation say rail alone will not solve future traffic problems along the interstate. They also say they don't have the money to widen I-81 now, so any possible expansion is probably years away.