In 1979, K.A. Ammar, a businessman from
Bluefield, West Virginia, started the Bluefield-to-Huntington Highway Association in order to widen
US 52, a very dangerous two-lane road used to transport
coal from mines to barges on the
Ohio River. With coal employment in decline and the desire to bring in other businesses, Ammar worked to get the road improved. In 1989,
Bluefield State College Professor John Sage learned of plans to add more Interstate Highways. Ammar and Sage came up with the idea for a road that would be called I-73, to run from
Detroit, Michigan, to
Charleston, South Carolina. Ammar and others promoted the idea to the people of
Portsmouth, Ohio, and
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In 1991, as
Congress worked on reauthorization of the
Surface Transportation Act, the people from West Virginia worked to get I-73 approved; the highway would run alongside US 52. 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. 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. 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. A connector between
I-77 and US 52 at
Mount Airy was planned, and US 52 from Mount Airy to Winston-Salem and
US 311 from Winston-Salem to
High Point were four-lane divided highways. A US 311 bypass of High Point was planned, which would eventually connect to US 220 at
Randleman. I-73 would follow US 220 to
Rockingham. Another possibility was following
I-40 from Winston-Salem to Greensboro. Congestion on US 52 in Winston-Salem was anticipated to be an issue. The route through High Point was approved in May 1993. 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. 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. This distressed Winston-Salem officials who were counting on I-73, though Greensboro had never publicly sought the road. But an aide to US Senator
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 I-74. In May, Warner announced plans to propose legislation that made the plan for two Interstates official. The
National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 added a branch from
Toledo, Ohio, to
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, via the
US 223 and
US 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, joining again between Randleman and Rockingham; 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
I-81 in Virginia (with I-74 to end 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 Highways. 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 and since has finished and approved construction projects to build new sections of the Interstate Highway. , the route is signed along of freeway from the intersection of US 220 and
NC 68 north of Greensboro to south of
Ellerbe and an additional is complete but not signed south of Rockingham. The only other progress in building I-73 can be seen in Virginia and 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. The
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approved the EIS report in April 2007. Virginia can now go ahead to 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 North Carolina border in July 2007. In January 2006, the South Carolina state legislature introduced bills to construct I-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. On January 9, 2019, it was announced that the
North Carolina Department of Transportation's (NCDOT) State Transportation Improvement Program for 2020 to 2029 included connecting I-73 with
US 74 six years sooner than planned. A $146.1-million contract was awarded for the of four-lane freeway with "substantial completion" by late 2023. ==Future==