Botetourt County road orders 1770-1778

The road history projects undertaken by the Virginia Transportation Research Council establish the feasibility of studies of early road networks and their use in the environmental review process. These projects, by gathering and publishing the early road orders of the vast parent counties, also lay the foundation for additional research by local groups over a broad area of Virginia. This volume marks the twenty-fourth entry in the Historic Roads of Virginia series, first initiated by the Virginia Transportation Research Council (then the Virginia Highway & Transportation Research Council) in 1973. Botetourt County Road Orders 1770-1778 expands the coverage of early western Virginia transportation records begun in the previously published Orange County Road Orders 1734-1749 and Augusta County Road Orders 1745-1769. This information will eliminate the need for further research into the Botetourt County road order records of 1770-1778. If questions arise about early roads once a VDOT road improvement project is already underway (or nearly underway), primary historical research of this nature can take 6 to 12 months to complete. Therefore, this study can be a source of potentially significant cost savings for VDOT, including the avoided costs of project delays and avoided consultant costs for cultural resource studies should questions arise.