 But federal officials assured Virginia that the state would decide the route.Although initially favoring that northern route, Virginia's State Highway Commission eventually supported a southern route from Richmond via US-360 and US-460, which connected Lynchburg and Roanoke via US-220 from Roanoke to Clifton Forge, then continued west following US-60 into West Virginia.But in July 1961 Governor Lindsay Almond and US Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges announced that the route would not be changed.