FROM THE OPINION PAGE — Coalfields Expressway: Push underway to finish project in Virginia bdtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bdtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Dec 29, 2020
Dec 29, 2020
While neighboring West Virginia has made some progress in recent years on the construction of the Coalfields Expressway, at least in Raleigh and Wyoming counties, the future four-lane corridor has been largely stalled in neighboring Southwest Virginia.
The Coalfields Expressway, also known as U.S. Route 121 in Virginia, is envisioned as a three-state project. The first section of the expressway recently opened to traffic in Raleigh County in West Virginia where the four-lane also has now been extended into neighboring Wyoming County. There is still no usable section of the roadway in McDowell County.
However, the state of Virginia has no sections of the Coalfields Expressway currently funded or under construction except for a shared section with U.S. 460 in Buchanan County, according to a resolution passed earlier this month by the Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority Board. That resolution correctlyÂ
Dec 21, 2020
Vehicles drive down the Coalfields Expressway in Raleigh County in this 2019 file photo. BDT file photo
LEBANON, Va. â A resolution stressing the importance of the Coalfields Expressway as âabsolutely critical to the economic development and diversification ofâ the far Southwest Virginia region was adopted Tuesday by the Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority Board (CFX Authority).
According to the resolution, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the federal government are being urged to âdo all they can to cause the completion of the Coalfields Expressway in Virginia in as expeditious manner as possible for the benefit of the Commonwealthâs citizens in far Southwest Virginia.â