Latest news with #RustyMarks
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Coalfields Expressway 50 percent complete in McDowell
welch — Construction on McDowell County's first four-lane highway has reached the half-way point. Work on the Coalfields Expressway near Welch is now 50 percent complete, according to Rusty Marks with the public relations office for the West Virginia Department of Transportation. Marks said the Welch segment of the four-lane is still on target for completion in 2026. Once the five-mile stretch of the Coalfields Expressway in Welch is completed, it will be the first usable section of four-lane highway in McDowell County's history. It will extend from the city limits of Welch to the Wyoming County line. Work on the five-mile stretch of four-lane highway began during the summer of 2022. Once it is completed, motorists will be able to connect with the Coalfields Expressway near Welch Community Hospital and the junction of Route 7 past the Indian Ridge Industrial Park and into Wyoming County. But it will start as a two-lane highway near the hospital before becoming four lanes, according to Marks. 'This project will be usable when completed,' Marks said. 'The stretch from the hospital to Welch will be two lanes; the rest will be four.' The Coalfields Expressway will extend through both West Virginia and Virginia. The full West Virginia routing of the Coalfields Expressway will take the new four-lane corridor from Welch in McDowell County toward Pineville in Wyoming County and Beckley in Raleigh County. In neighboring Virginia, the Coalfields Expressway will extend through Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties. Sections of the four-lane also are under development in Southwest Virginia, including in Buchanan County. According to the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the Coalfields Expressway is intended to provide a multi-lane expressway, with partial control of access, connecting I-64/I-77 (the WV Turnpike) at Beckley and U.S. 23 at Slate, Va. The DOT says the project will create a modern, safe and efficient transportation corridor for Southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia and is expected to promote economic development opportunities for the region. In West Virginia the Coalfields Expressway will be about 65 miles long and in Virginia the length of the corridor will be about 50 miles. The completion of the Coalfields Expressway also will provide improved access for the Indian Ridge Industrial Park in McDowell County and the John D. Rockefeller IV Industrial Park in Wyoming County, as well as several recreational and tourism industries along the corridor, according to the DOT's project description website. It goes on to say that the Coalfields Expressway Authority, which is now defunct in West Virginia, published in December 2006 an Economic Impact Study concerning the expressway. The conclusions of that study found that the Coalfields Expressway is expected to allow for its counties to generate increased economic growth. Contact Charles Owens at cowens@
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Coalfields Expressway 50 percent complete in McDowell
welch — Construction on McDowell County's first four-lane highway has reached the half-way point. Work on the Coalfields Expressway near Welch is now 50 percent complete, according to Rusty Marks with the public relations office for the West Virginia Department of Transportation. Marks said the Welch segment of the four-lane is still on target for completion in 2026. Once the five-mile stretch of the Coalfields Expressway in Welch is completed, it will be the first usable section of four-lane highway in McDowell County's history. It will extend from the city limits of Welch to the Wyoming County line. Work on the five-mile stretch of four-lane highway began during the summer of 2022. Once it is completed, motorists will be able to connect with the Coalfields Expressway near Welch Community Hospital and the junction of Route 7 past the Indian Ridge Industrial Park and into Wyoming County. But it will start as a two-lane highway near the hospital before becoming four lanes, according to Marks. 'This project will be usable when completed,' Marks said. 'The stretch from the hospital to Welch will be two lanes; the rest will be four.' The Coalfields Expressway will extend through both West Virginia and Virginia. The full West Virginia routing of the Coalfields Expressway will take the new four-lane corridor from Welch in McDowell County toward Pineville in Wyoming County and Beckley in Raleigh County. In neighboring Virginia, the Coalfields Expressway will extend through Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties. Sections of the four-lane also are under development in Southwest Virginia, including in Buchanan County. According to the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the Coalfields Expressway is intended to provide a multi-lane expressway, with partial control of access, connecting I-64/I-77 (the WV Turnpike) at Beckley and U.S. 23 at Slate, Va. The DOT says the project will create a modern, safe and efficient transportation corridor for Southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia and is expected to promote economic development opportunities for the region. In West Virginia the Coalfields Expressway will be about 65 miles long and in Virginia the length of the corridor will be about 50 miles. The completion of the Coalfields Expressway also will provide improved access for the Indian Ridge Industrial Park in McDowell County and the John D. Rockefeller IV Industrial Park in Wyoming County, as well as several recreational and tourism industries along the corridor, according to the DOT's project description website. It goes on to say that the Coalfields Expressway Authority, which is now defunct in West Virginia, published in December 2006 an Economic Impact Study concerning the expressway. The conclusions of that study found that the Coalfields Expressway is expected to allow for its counties to generate increased economic growth. Contact Charles Owens at cowens@
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
More than 150 acres timbered at King Coal site
bluefield — A massive timbering project at the site of the King Coal Highway project in Bluefield has concluded. Approximately 150 acres of timber was cut to make way for the next phase of the new interstate project in Mercer County, according to Rusty Marks with the public relations office for the West Virginia Department of Transportation. While much of that timbering wasn't visible to motorists traveling along the new four-lane corridor, the timbered trees are visible from the distance near the 'road closed' sign where the King Coal Highway currently connects with the existing Airport Road. That's where the next section of the interstate corridor will begin. The new $58 million contract will take the King Coal Highway another 2.5 miles from Airport Road to Littlesburg Road, near Route 20 and the Bluewell community. However, earth-moving work on that project can't begin until two permits are received by the DOH, according to Mark. Those permits may not be received until late summer. 'The contractor, Kanawha Stone, is securing a 404 permit as well as an NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit),' Marks said in an email response to questions by the Daily Telegraph. 'If these permits are obtained prior to August, then construction work can resume. August is simply the date in which these permits are assumed to be in place so that work can begin.' A 404 permit falls under the Clean Waters Act and regulates the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands. A groundbreaking ceremony on the Littlesburg Road section of the King Coal Highway was held last November, but no actual work on the highway project was completed at that time due to the pending arrival of winter. A third Mercer County contract is still in the planning stages. Once it is approved, that project will extend the King Coal Highway another five miles from the Littlesburg Road area toward the Montcalm community. The Littlesburg Road to Montcalm section of the King Coal Highway is still under environmental review. A contract award date for that stretch of the roadway has not yet been announced. The King Coal Highway is West Virginia's local corridor of the future Interstate 73/74/75 routing. In West Virginia, the King Coal Highway will ultimately extend 95 miles through Mercer, McDowell, Mingo, Wyoming and Wayne counties along or near currently existing U.S. 52 from U.S. 119 near Williamson to Interstate 77 in Bluefield. In the bigger picture, the final Interstate 73/74/75 routing will extend from Detroit, Michigan to Myrtle Beach, S.C, opening up a large swath of Southern West Virginia to interstate access. According to the National I-73/74/75 Corridor Association, the project will bring growth along the interstate within six states: Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Sections of the interstate corridor are already open in other states, including North Carolina and South Carolina. Contact Charles Owens at cowens@
