The executive summary lists six options VDOT can take on the I-73 project. They offered 11 possible corridors for an interstate-quality highway with at least four lanes. The executive summary said neither the no-build option nor the transportation management option was desirable. The no-build option would not improve safety, and traffic volume would continue to increase, the document said. Transportation management also would not adequately improve safety , the study said.
Safety is one of the driving forces for the proposed interstate.
All the options for building an interstate would affect homes, businesses, streams, farms and forests, but the statement did not rank the routes' effects. But the summary doesn't say where those homes are or how many would have to be moved in each locality. The study says all of the build options would reduce air pollution by diverting traffic and increasing the average travel speed. All of the build options would affect the Roanoke logperch, an endangered fish in the Roanoke River, because of bridge construction. Fred Altizer, Salem District manager for VDOT, said the report wasn't intended to provide a ranking or compare the corridors.