Coal companies want mining to pave way for four-lane roads in Central Appalachia

The multi-billion-dollar cost of the proposed Coalfields Expressway, a project put on the drawing board almost 20 years ago, could be cut by about half "by combining construction . . . with surface coal mining," according to a study funded partly by companies that want to do the mining, Paula Tate reports in The Coalfield Progress of Norton, Va.

The four-lane highway would stretch 115 miles from four-lane US 23 at Pound, Va., near the Kentucky border, to Interstates 64 and 77 near Beckley, W. Va., and run through some of the richer coal deposits remaining in the Eastern U.S. The study by the Virginia Department of Transportation, Alpha Natural Resources LLC and Pioneer Group Inc. calls for Alpha to mine and prepare a roadbed for about 30 miles of the 50-mile route in Virginia and for Pioneer to do the other 20 miles. Alpha CEO Mike Quillen "noted that the road, which would have a 60 mile-per-hour designation, would be one of the most scenic highways in the country," Tate wrote. The route for the 65-mile West Virginia section, pictured above, was selected nine years ago, and at least one small section is complete.

Alpha is already mining and building a section of the 90-mile King Coal Highway, planned to roughly parallel US 52, which runs along the western border of West Virginia and intersects the Coalfields Expressway route a few miles east of the junction of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. The eight-mile section east of Williamson, W.Va., is estimated to cost $110 million; the whole road, about $2 billion, according to the Federal Highway Administration. It would connect I-64 with I-77 at Bluefield. For FHwA's description of the King Coal Highway, click here.

Supporters of the roads say they would greatly improve the economy of the region. Skeptics worry about increased environmental damage from coal mining. We neither endorse nor oppose these projects, but we do object to the name of the "expressway." It would have intersections, so it wouldn't be an expressway, and there is only one coalfield in Appalachia, so the name needs to be singular, not plural. The Coalfield Progress has its own nomenclature right. (Read more)