[1] Since its inception, environmental studies have been completed; but, because it scores low for project jobs in the state, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has shelved plans for the foreseeable future.

In West Virginia, the highway would run alongside US 52, which was only two lanes but was still being used to transport coal from mines to barges on the Ohio River.

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.

[1] 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 that would make them good enough for Interstate designation.

[6] By November of that year, however, 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.

[7] In April 1995, John Warner, who chaired the Senate subcommittee that would select the route of I-73, announced his support for the Job Link proposal.

[9] The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 added a branch from Toledo, Ohio, to Sault Ste.

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.

In 2005 Virginia completed an environmental impact statement (EIS) for its recommended route for I-73 from I-81 in Roanoke to the North Carolina border.

Virginia can now go ahead and draw up plans to construct the highway and proceed to build it once funds are obtained.

In January 2006, the South Carolina state legislature introduced bills to construct I-73 as a toll highway.

On May 24, 2016, Ronald "Skip" Ressel Jr., president of the I-73 committee serving the Martinsville area, announced that he would not pursue building I-73 through his part of the state; a proposed corridor would follow the same general route, however, and be maintained by the Commonwealth of Virginia.