How much attention is being paid to environmental factors, and which ones?
Environment is the most-studied factor in choosing the highway’s route. Highway opponents can often keep a road away from a neighborhood if an endangered species exists there. On Bent Mountain, I-73 opponents cited the presence of the rare pirateweed as a reason the road shouldn’t go there. Federal law requires VDOT to perform an environmental impact study, which is now in its fourth year and nearly complete. VDOT expects to send its draft environmental impact statement to the Federal Highway Administration in May. This study is expected to give equal attention to all of the dozen or more possible corridors. If it fails to consider each corridor equally, opponents can argue in court that the study wasn’t adequate and the road shouldn’t be built.
