Virginia Traffic Congestion <> Interstate Solutions 

Southwest Virginia has more important fish to fry {so the arguments went} so Victory Stadium debates were a "Waste of Time". Okay. Here's a few other ideas that I've worked on such as a solution to the entire Interstate I-81 road expansion crisis plus a completely new improved routing for Interstate I-73 >

Goodbye Stadium, hello "We don't Know". The plan was there, on this web page, but clearer heads obviously prevailed. Since I spend most my time & what energy I have working other matters, Victory Stadium wasn't a "biggie" with me. It was however a good plan that would have saved enough money to build two new high-school stadiums.

Elevating a Second I-81 roadway above existing traffic lanes ?

Over the last few years I've had more than a few plans. Such as a way to immediately double the traffic carried by Interstate I-81 {"immediately" by road planner standards}. I tried explaining it on this web page > newpath4.com/interstate81.htm about 2 years ago. It was a good enough page to rank high in Google for a short period.

Briefly, the idea is to build above & atop Interstate I-81 with an elevated lightweight alloy roadway that would not carry tractor-trailer traffic, sort of like an Interstate-81 Parkway. All lightweight cars and motorcycle traffic would use the Upper Roadway.

Since the upper roadway would be made to lower requirements because of the reduced weight of building materials, upper roadway construction could be completed in a few years instead of 10-20 years. Of course since it probably wouldn't fly in Richmond circles it wouldn't work here.

Some new on- and off-ramps would need to be built, hardly an obstacle. So what would be a worthy obstacle? Well, it would set Virginia apart and make VA look unique. No one wants that, no matter how good it might work.

Oops, can't say that. It has been about 2+ YEARS since I wrote that webpage about fixing the entire Virginia interstate traffic problem. It went nowhere, much like fixing Victory Stadium.

What about Interstate I-73 through VA ? 

In a series of posts to the Roanoke Times Message boards I showed how splitting I-73 and building two legs, one on the Salem side & the other on the Bedford County side, would reduce the environmental impacts to Roanoke residents on both sides. Ohio  to SC-FL traffic is southbound-only and NC to NY traffic would shunt northbound to the east side of Roanoke.

Briefly, the one-way legs would be constructed a great deal faster through the affected neighborhoods, raising much less construction dust. This is because the full road construction resources would be concentrated into a few lanes at a time and completed rather quickly.

Benefits to Roanoke City ? They would be Legion. 

Interstate I-581 would not need to be widened {$$$} & Truck Traffic would be pulled off of Orange Avenue to improve air quality in downtown Roanoke. This would help many, many residents who have lung & breathing ailments, such as asthma, emphysema and other traffic-aggravated chronic lung diseases. Orange Avenue road surfaces would last much longer.

Reduced traffic of trucks would improve Roanoke's quality of living. Longevity. Heart attacks. The list is long of how much city residents stand to benefit from a split I-73 solution. Diesel fumes are a vile pollution that is eating paint off people's cars & homes, bark off surrounding trees, reducing all property values & eroding Roanoke's tax base as employers move out of downtown to escape it.

For at least the past 3-4 years the Roanoke Times has run articles quoting "transportation experts" but they will not mention a peep about my plans. I wonder why that is? I guess they do not like ideas coming from a Roanoke County resident. No matter.

Expedited flow of heavy duty truck traffic would eliminate any need to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to widen Interstate I-81, millions on widening it from Salem VA to the Botetourt County VA line.

So we probably shouldn't do that either. 

People do not exodus out of Roanoke because of the smog. They leave to escape the do-nothing, build-nothing, solve-nothing prevailing attitude that chokes Southwest Virginia as surely as a swallowed dust rag. And that's something no one has ever fixed, politico-money-business moneygreed gridlock.

Everything physical has an equation to solve it. 

The eastern {northern 220-81 alt route} proposed leg of I-73 could be a suitable location for a new stadium which would be easily accessed from northbound I-73, off to the eastern side of Roanoke where residents would not be bothered with stadium traffic so much. [Bedford & Smith Mountain Lake residents would have a closer stadium... (more bucks, more groups from increased "fan area").] Every physical problem has answers and solutions.

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No widening of I-81 required     

      No widening of I-581 needed

No widening Interstate I-81 from Salem to Troutville

Salem-Roanoke-Troutville Map

"Virginia Autobahn"