You’re exactly right!!! Try driving I 81 thru Virginia if you have the patience. Our politicians spend all their money on entitlements. I 73 is dead here.
You can thank all the libs who have flocked to northern Virginia and Hampton Roads over the years for that one.
I-81 desperately needs to be widened to six-lanes at a minimum from Bristol to Winchester (WV/VA line). It’s needed it for probably at least two decades.
I know a few miles near C-burg exits have been updated and purgatory has six-lanes (Wytheville I-77). If I remember correctly WV has already widened their part of I-81, although it’s about 30 miles worth.