 A significant physical obstacle is that the town completely fills Hillsboro Gap, making any in-place widening impossible and requiring any separate bypass to go over or through Short Hill Mountain.Instead, the town of Hillsboro is studying traffic calming measures in hopes of encouraging West Virginia traffic to detour through Clarke County via U.S. Route 340 and Virginia State Route 7.The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted to make the entire length of SR 9 a Virginia Byway on March 21, 2002.