POUND, Va. – Coalfields Expressway construction could begin this year since the 52-mile project is back under a special transportation provision, which allows innovative contracting methods that reduce costs and expedites the project, U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th District, said Friday.
"Construction of this road will begin in the very near term," Boucher said. "Hopefully, in a matter of months and within this year."
Boucher said the project – which would build a four-lane highway to link Virginia’s top three coal-producing counties to interstate highways in West Virginia – floundered when it lost the Special Experimental Projects status a few years ago after progress on the roadway became stagnant.
"Today, I am pleased to announce that the Federal Highway Administration, at my request and that of Gov. Tim Kaine, is reinstating Special Experimental Project status for the Coalfields Expressway," Boucher said.
The initial status was granted to allow Virginia transportation officials to enter into an agreement with a private firm to design and build the expressway, but the original partner, Kellogg, Brown and Root, did not move forward on the project.
New partners – Alpha Natural Resources and Pioneer Coal Co. – came aboard in September with a plan to mine coal along the proposed roadway and build the highway in the process, Boucher said. The new partnership reduces costs for the project from $4 billion to $2 billion, Boucher said.
"Virginia has abundant coal reserves, and both Alpha and Pioneer, which together control the rights to the reserves along the route of the road, expressed a strong interest in partnering with the state to begin construction of the expressway as part of their mining operations," Boucher said.
The partnership between Virginia road officials and the coal companies is the reason federal transportation officials again granted the project special status, Boucher said.
"With special federal Experimental Project status restored, our prospects for construction of the road have never been better," Boucher said. "The coal companies will build it quicker, at half the costs and with a better design and higher speed limit than if the road were built by VDOT alone."
Boucher said the road would now have a speed limit of 60 miles per hour rather than the originally proposed 55 miles per hour.
Officials in Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties see the expressway as necessary in order to create economic diversity in the region. They want easy access to interstate highways and many see the expressway as the best way to build the economy by creating a roadway that could lure new business and industry to the coalfields.
Delegate Bud Phillips, D-Sandy Ridge, said Friday the expressway is the most important road project for the region during the last half of the 20th century. Phillips said many in the public are unaware that the project is moving forward on several levels.
"Things are happening," he said.
The Pound bypass, an essential element of the expressway, is in Virginia’s six-year road plan, he said. Nearly $2 million in state money is available for the construction of the connector road near Haysi and Breaks Interstate Park that will be linked to the expressway near Grundy, he said.
"We’re going to make this happen," Phillips said. "I’m sure of that."
kstill@bristolnews.com | (276) 679-1338
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