Interstate 73 in Virginia

Interstate 73
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Virginia Routes Interstate U.S. Primary Secondary Byways History Turnpikes ← SR 73 SR 74 →

Interstate 73 (I-73) is a planned Interstate Highway in Virginia. It currently exists in North Carolina with a proposed extension from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Grayling, Michigan, passing through the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Route description

In Virginia, I-73 will continue north from the state line parallel to the U.S. 220 corridor all the way to Roanoke. U.S. 220 is a rural four-lane highway with many safety issues. As such, Virginia has decided to have I-73 immediately diverge from U.S. 220 upon entering the commonwealth from North Carolina and travel around the east side of Martinsville, with U.S. 220 as a freeway around the west side of Martinsville. The two will meet briefly south of Rocky Mount. I-73 will continue its northbound journey paralleling US 220 to the east until they converge south of Roanoke. At that point, I-73 and U.S. 220 will run concurrent to Interstate 581, which I-73 will follow to I-81. ^[1]

If I-73 is extended northward, from Roanoke, it will turn southwest on I-81, running concurrent to east of Blacksburg, and then using the Smart Road to Blacksburg. The rest of the way to West Virginia will be an upgrade of U.S. 460, Corridor Q of the Appalachian Development Highway System.

Interestingly, I-73/81 will be the second wrong-way concurrency in Virginia on I-81, the first being I-77 in Wytheville to the south. (A future section of I-74 is planned to overlap I-77 for its entire distance in Virginia, including the section shared with I-81.)

History

In 1991, as Congress worked on reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Act, the Bluefield-to-Huntington Highway Association wanted an interstate highway, which would be called Interstate 73, to run from Detroit to Charleston, South Carolina. In West Virginia, the highway would run alongside U.S. Highway 52, which was only two lanes but was still being used to transport coal from mines to barges on the Ohio River. The influential Robert Byrd, at the time West Virginia's senior senator, chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, but even Byrd said funding for such a highway would be hard to find. In North Carolina, Marc Bush of the Greensboro Area Chamber of Commerce admitted the plan would benefit his area, but said it was not a priority.^[2]

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) defined High Priority Corridor 5, the "I-73/74 North-South Corridor" from Charleston, South Carolina, through Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Portsmouth, Ohio, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan." This would provide for a single corridor from Charleston, splitting at Portsmouth, with I-74 turning west to its current east end in Cincinnati, and I-73 continuing north to Detroit.^[3]

In North Carolina, any new construction would require more money than the state had available, but Walter C. Sprouse Jr., executive director of the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation pointed out that most of the route of I-73 included roads already scheduled for improvements which would make them good enough for interstate designation. A connector between Interstate 77 and U.S. 52 at Mt. Airy was planned, and U.S. 52 from Mt. Airy to Winston-Salem and U.S. 311 from Winston-Salem to High Point were four-lane divided highways. A U.S. 311 bypass of High Point was planned, which would eventually connect to U.S. 220 at Randleman. I-73 would follow U.S. 220 to Rockingham. Another possibility was following Interstate 40 from Winston-Salem to Greensboro. In Winston-Salem, congestion on U.S. 52 was expected to be a problem.^[4] The route through High Point was approved in May 1993.^[5]

However, by November of that year, an organization called Job Link, made up of business leaders from northern North Carolina and southern Virginia, wanted a major highway to connect Roanoke with the Greensboro area. It could be I-73, the group said, but did not have to be.^[6] In April 1995, John Warner, who chaired the Senate subcommittee which would select the route of I-73, announced his support for the Job Link proposal. This distressed Winston-Salem officials who were counting on I-73, though Greensboro had never publicly sought the road. But an aide to U. S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth said the 1991 law authorizing I-73 required the road to go through Winston-Salem. Faircloth got around this requirement, though, by asking Warner to call the highway to Winston-Salem Interstate 74.^[7] In May, Warner announced plans to propose legislation that made the plan for two interstates official.^[8]

The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 added a branch from Toledo, Ohio to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan via the U.S. Route 223 and U.S. Route 127 corridors. (At the time, US 127 north of Lansing was part of US 27.) It also gave details for the alignments in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. I-73 and I-74 were to split near Bluefield, West Virginia, joining again between Randleman, North Carolina and Rockingham, North Carolina; both would end at Charleston. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) approved the sections of I-73 and I-74 south of Interstate 81 in Virginia (with I-74 ending at I-73 near Myrtle Beach) on July 25, 1996, allowing for them to be marked once built to Interstate standards and connected to other Interstate routes. The final major change came with the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century of 1998 (TEA-21), when both routes were truncated to Georgetown, South Carolina.

North Carolina took the lead in signing highways as I-73 following AASHTO's approval in 1997 and since has approved construction projects to build new sections of the Interstate Highway. Two new sections of what will be I-73 are being completed, the southwestern part of the Greensboro Urban Loop around Greensboro, North Carolina (referred to above) and the US 220 Bypass of Ellerbe, south of Asheboro, North Carolina. The only other progress in building I-73 can be seen in Virginia and South Carolina. In 2005 Virginia completed an environmental impact statement for its recommended route for I-73 from I-81 in Roanoke to the North Carolina border. The Federal Highway Administration approved the EIS report in April 2007. Virginia can now go ahead and draw up plans to construct the highway and proceed to build it once funds are obtained. South Carolina also has shown recent interest in building its section of I-73 with a corridor selected for the route from I-95 to Myrtle Beach in 2006 and a final decision on how the highway should be routed north of I-95 to the NC border in July 2007. In January 2006 the South Carolina state legislature introduced bills to construct Interstate 73 as a toll highway. It is hoped a guaranteed stream of revenue will allow it to build its section of I-73 within 10 years. The FHWA approved South Carolina's proposal on August 10, 2007.^[9]

Ohio and Michigan both abandoned further environmental studies on their portions of I-73. It is important to note that most of the I-73 corridor in both of these states follows existing freeways or highways scheduled to be upgraded to freeways under plans that predate I-73.

See also

• U.S. Roads portal
• Virginia portal

References

External links

• Media related to Interstate 73 in Virginia at Wikimedia Commons

Interstate 73
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