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There is support, it's just the economy doesn't have the money for it, and that's true for a lot of WV highway projects such as U.S. Rt. 35, WV Rt. 10, Beckley Z-Way, and the King Coal. But eventually the economy will bounce back. These roads will be finished, maybe not in my or your lifetime. I'm just curious Havoc, is there a certain road project in NWV that I don't know about or a Morgantown Expressway/Beltway that's been proposed. I would like to hear your ideas on needed road construction projects in NWV. Looking at a map, I-79 pretty much serves as the main corridor between all NWV towns. You also have U.S.Rt50 serving Clarksburg to Parkersburg that is currently built. Is there a ambitious financially strapped project other than road construction that is in the works?
I'll jump in here to say that for northern WV, a modernization of State Route 2 from the Northern Panhandle to Huntington should be a priority, especially now with the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling really taking off, as well as the impact to the chemical industries up and down the Ohio. I know someone mentioned connecting I-68 to the New Martinsville area as well. I think Congressman Rahall once said he would do everything in his power to bury southern WV in concrete with projects such as the King Coal Highway.
I'm not for regionalism, I'm for all of WV to be prosperous. If there are proposals to build a beltway for Morgantown, I'm for it. Help the traffic flow, I'm for it. In Morgantown, There are 2 current four lanes to Pittsburgh, I-79 and the Mon-Fayette expressway(WV 43/Pa 43). You also have I-68 to Maryland. There is already highway infrastructure built for the people to use. Wyoming and McDowell Counties dont have sufficient highway infrastructure at all. The Coalfields Expressway is right at the Wyoming County Line near Slab Fork, a few more miles and it would be in Mullens. King Coal has a bridge to nowhere in Mercer after a major at grade interchange was built. In Mingo there are sections open and in Welch the interchange for the CFX and King Coal has been built for 11 years, there is also a Federal Prison there as well. I can't deny Morgantown is a beautiful city which needs to clean it's PRT system up some, I wouldn't mind funds used to clean it up. Here is my issue, the projects like US 35, WV Rt 10, Beckley Z-Way are projects that have had lots of money already spent, groundwork laid down, and major construction phases already completed.It would be a bigger waste to lose what we have already spent, especially when the CFX is getting built in Va as well.
As far as major construction of Interstates is concerned, we very much need to finish I-68 to WV 2 some place between New Martinsville and Moundsville. That would benefit the entire region, not just Morgantown. We also need the new exit off of I68 for the new developments in the Westover/Granville area, and some lighting on our roads around the city. That should about do it for those types of roads.
Finishing 705 and Mileground down to Point Marion Road, Beechurst Ave., and making Don Knotts 4 lane up to the I-68 feeder road at the Downtown Exit are also important. Making West Run Road 3 lanes from Van Voorhis to Point Marion Road and making Van Voorhis 3 lanes up to Bakers Ridge are also important. Take care of those projects, and we should be in pretty good shape here. You're talking about maybe 10 or 11 miles of local projects.
Widening WV 2 from Chester to Huntington should also have high priority. With the new industry make possible by Northern Panhandle, PA, and Eastern Ohio wet gas, it is vitally important for those areas to have the infrastructure in place to capitalize on the asset, as well as move fractionated products from the new Shell facility being built in PA through the Ohio Valley for futher processing. This would also greatly enhance Huntington's position as a natural transportation hub for the movement of goods and materials.
Unfortunately, you might well have special interests in Charleston who will try to impede any of those projects due to parochial self interests. Some groups there actually see growth and development elsewhere as a threat to either their political dominance or their ability to use politics for their own economic interests. It's part of the West Virginia syndrome that has hampered this state for more than a century.
Was anybody speaking up to object to this project in 1995? If you didn't object when it started, aren't you partly responsible for the waste that you speak of now?
Nah, it's easier to just vent again' whoever's in office. The reality is that roadbuilding is a very long term process - projects just out of the starting gate won't see pavement for another decade+, so whomever is in office then will get the blame.
I don't know, but when I went on it back in December it was fairly well-traveled.
Time for me to chime in on this. I was bored one day and decided to map out the routes of the Coalfields Expressway and the King Coal Highway (including Tolsia Highway). If you want to see both in context, here's the link: Southern WV Highways.
I also calculated the amount of travel time saved with these projects vs. current times. If you want to check the economic impacts (projected), check the Rahall Institute. Take Welch as an example - currently it takes 73 minutes to get to Beckley and 63 to get to Bluefield. With the highways, this is cut to 37 and 35, respectively. The trip from the State Line to Beckley is reduced by over an hour, as is the trip from Williamson to Bluefield.
I live in Morgantown so I'm well aware of the infrastructure needs here. In my time here, traffic has been horrible, but we're finally starting to see our share of projects, most notably the Mileground. I would prefer the state to invest more in the growing areas, but it isn't as if we're forgotten. That said, I'm not totally opposed to the Southern highways. Yes, the area is sparsely populated, but access to modern highways is crucial for any wanted economic development and population growth. If the State ever wants to build highways down there, now is the time. The fact that P3s (Public-private partnerships) with the coal companies are saving over 50% of the building costs, we would be remiss, economically, not to capitalize on that.
Look at Mingo County. Over half of the KCH is done or under construction there. It has provided not only a highway but graded land upon which new industrial and commercial sites are being built. A new airport and industrial park, new high school and residential neighborhood, another industrial park, a new golf course, and a $3 billion (yes, with a B) coal-to-liquids plant are all established or under construction. The Adams Fork CTL plant alone triples the existing tax base. The fact that all of that economic development has happened in little ole Mingo County is nothing short of a miracle.
Unfortunately, the KCH is stalled at Bluefield and all places between there and Welch. Most of the easy coal is gone there and P3s will be scarce. The least they could do, though, is extend the KCH from the unused bridges in Bluefield out to Airport Road.
As for the CXW, it is complete down past Sophia and construction is set to resume to bring the road down to Rt 54 at Mullens. That will make it about 15 min from Mullens to Beckley and take almost 20 minutes off the trip. Also, McDowell County is about to enter into an agreement to build a section from Welch up to the prison and Indian Ridge Industrial Park where the eventual interchange with the KCH will be. Getting the CXW built to Welch should be priority #1 in transportation needs in the South. Something has to save McDowell.
So yes, it's frustrating to some that this is getting funding now, but this is the best time, economically, to do this. But I agree that other projects need finished. Rt 2 widening and added capacity in Morgantown and Martinsburg are musts. Hopefully with the Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways, new funding sources can be found to help the entire state.
Was coal the reason for Corridor G or Rt 119? I traveled it to the south frequently and had the road to myself.
I don't know if coal was a factor or not, but Corridor G has been the biggest factor in all the business development at Southridge and nearby. The business corridor follows Corridor G all the way to Logan. Some place have gotten so busy they have 3 lanes each direction and two turn lanes. I absolutely hate the thought of having to go to the Southridge area to shop, and the one and only reason is the traffic.
Was anybody speaking up to object to this project in 1995? If you didn't object when it started, aren't you partly responsible for the waste that you speak of now?
Perhaps you are right. I'm retired now, and have more time to think about issues like this. 20 years ago I was absorbed with trying to make a living and support my children. I didn't pay as much attention as I might have, and probably should have to what was going on around me.
I don't know if coal was a factor or not, but Corridor G has been the biggest factor in all the business development at Southridge and nearby. The business corridor follows Corridor G all the way to Logan. Some place have gotten so busy they have 3 lanes each direction and two turn lanes. I absolutely hate the thought of having to go to the Southridge area to shop, and the one and only reason is the traffic.
Corridor G was vastly different than King Coal. There actually was some population along G and some differing economic situations. King Coal is from and to nowhere, and serves little purpose but to pump temporary money into communities along the way that have little potential to benefit in a meaningful way long term.
I don't know, but when I went on it back in December it was fairly well-traveled.
Time for me to chime in on this. I was bored one day and decided to map out the routes of the Coalfields Expressway and the King Coal Highway (including Tolsia Highway). If you want to see both in context, here's the link: Southern WV Highways.
I also calculated the amount of travel time saved with these projects vs. current times. If you want to check the economic impacts (projected), check the Rahall Institute. Take Welch as an example - currently it takes 73 minutes to get to Beckley and 63 to get to Bluefield. With the highways, this is cut to 37 and 35, respectively. The trip from the State Line to Beckley is reduced by over an hour, as is the trip from Williamson to Bluefield.
I live in Morgantown so I'm well aware of the infrastructure needs here. In my time here, traffic has been horrible, but we're finally starting to see our share of projects, most notably the Mileground. I would prefer the state to invest more in the growing areas, but it isn't as if we're forgotten. That said, I'm not totally opposed to the Southern highways. Yes, the area is sparsely populated, but access to modern highways is crucial for any wanted economic development and population growth. If the State ever wants to build highways down there, now is the time. The fact that P3s (Public-private partnerships) with the coal companies are saving over 50% of the building costs, we would be remiss, economically, not to capitalize on that.
Look at Mingo County. Over half of the KCH is done or under construction there. It has provided not only a highway but graded land upon which new industrial and commercial sites are being built. A new airport and industrial park, new high school and residential neighborhood, another industrial park, a new golf course, and a $3 billion (yes, with a B) coal-to-liquids plant are all established or under construction. The Adams Fork CTL plant alone triples the existing tax base. The fact that all of that economic development has happened in little ole Mingo County is nothing short of a miracle.
Unfortunately, the KCH is stalled at Bluefield and all places between there and Welch. Most of the easy coal is gone there and P3s will be scarce. The least they could do, though, is extend the KCH from the unused bridges in Bluefield out to Airport Road.
As for the CXW, it is complete down past Sophia and construction is set to resume to bring the road down to Rt 54 at Mullens. That will make it about 15 min from Mullens to Beckley and take almost 20 minutes off the trip. Also, McDowell County is about to enter into an agreement to build a section from Welch up to the prison and Indian Ridge Industrial Park where the eventual interchange with the KCH will be. Getting the CXW built to Welch should be priority #1 in transportation needs in the South. Something has to save McDowell.
So yes, it's frustrating to some that this is getting funding now, but this is the best time, economically, to do this. But I agree that other projects need finished. Rt 2 widening and added capacity in Morgantown and Martinsburg are musts. Hopefully with the Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways, new funding sources can be found to help the entire state.
I understand what you're saying, but think it would be extremely short sighted to invest money (like most of the pork projects based on what might be instead of what actually is) in these hugely expensive projects in sparcely populated areas when there is such obvious need in the populated ones, and in areas that are obviously poised for industrial growth. Does it make even a smithering of as much sense to pour tens of millions into a highway to nowhere as it does, for example, to improve WV 2 from Huntington to Newell? The latter is in the middle of the transportation corridor for products related to the wet gas industry. The former would only help destroy more mountains, provide for few employment opportunities in the final analysis, and preen the egos of some local politicians. To me, King Coal should be on the back burner.
WV 2 and I 68 projects, along with needed upgrades in traffic congested and growing populated areas, deserve to be at the front of the list. The former because of obvious growth potential based on economic realities, and the latter because those areas are the only ones suffering significant traffic congestion at this time.
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