First Section of Virginia’s Coalfields Expressway Road Bed Complete
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Photo: Andre Teague, Bristol Herald Courier
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In a field of tall grass and yellow wildflowers mixed with clover, two dirt roads intersect.
It might not look like much now, says Roman Lawson, project manager on the Coalfields Expressway for Alpha Natural Resources, but in the future it’s going to be a major intersection.
“This will be the interchange right here, with stop lights and all kinds of stuff right here,” said Lawson, leading a procession of four-wheel-drive vehicles down the muddy dirt track. “Haysi, 5 miles, right there will be a sign; Grundy, 2 miles.”
Eventually, he says, it will look like the intersection of U.S. Highway 460 and U.S. Highway 19 at Claypool Hill, a regional shopping destination where a mall and a big-box shopping center are among the many businesses.
“You’re on the expressway,” he says, after slowing down to turn from one dirt road onto the other.
It’s the point where a new Buchanan County industrial road reaches the expressway, which the Abingdon-based coal company is building in conjunction with its mining operations in Buchanan County.
The road is one of several Alpha is building for the county, in a similar public-private partnership, to connect to the new highway.
Officials from the Virginia Department of Transportation, Alpha and the region celebrated Tuesday the completion of the first two-mile section of road bed constructed for the expressway.
At one end is the point where another company, Pioneer Coal, will pick up construction of a piece that will run to West Virginia. At the other end is where Alpha is to build the next 4.8-mile section, to connect to state Route 80 near the town of Haysi, which is in Dickenson County.
Mike Russell, district administrator for VDOT’s Bristol District, said the Coalfield Expressway project — a total of 49 miles — would be “next to impossible” without the help of the coal companies.
Long Road to Progress
Jim Bowie, who represents the Bristol District on Virginia’s Commonwealth Transportation Board, said the Coalfields Expressway Project has been discussed for about 20 years, though it’s only in the last few that it’s been able to move toward reality.
“Before this, it was a pipe dream,” he said of the completion of the first section of roadway. “Now it’s a reality, and all we’ve got to do is extend what we’ve got.”
Bowie said the trouble was the price tag: With the need to literally move mountains for the proposed highway, the cost of construction was estimated at $4.7 billion. According to VDOT, the public-private partnership has cut that estimate almost in half.
And that original construction figure didn’t include the cost of obtaining the right-of-way, said Bowie, which would’ve included perhaps billions of dollars’ worth of coal reserves underlying the road.
According to VDOT, construction of the completed two-mile section would have cost $100 million without Alpha’s help; with the coal company’s involvement, the rough grade road bed cost the state only $10 million.
The nature of the partnership is referred to as “coal synergy,” for the combination of surface mining with a useful public purpose.
When the project was first designed, Bowie said, VDOT tried to avoid areas with mineral deposits; now, it goes right through them. Thanks to coal synergy, the very thing that was expected to increase the project’s cost has actually cut it to a fraction of the original.
“It’s something like a miracle that it happened,” Bowie said of the expressway project, “because odds were against it.”
Bowie said there was also the challenge of convincing transportation officials from other parts of the state — people usually seeking ways to alleviate congestion in heavily developed areas — that a highway is needed in the state’s remote rural corner.
“We’ve got two miles here,” said Vaughn Groves, general counsel and executive vice president for Alpha. “We’ve got 47 miles to go and we’re ready to help get that done.”
‘A Whole New World’
State Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Lebanon, said he views the Coalfields Expressway as a road to development.
It’s a vision shared by many leaders in this sparsely populated region with severe mountainous terrain and a general concern among older residents that too many young people must leave in search of work.
“If you don’t believe highways attract business, just look at what’s happened along I-81,” said Puckett, referring to Interstate 81.
The senator called the completion of the expressway’s first section “a giant step forward to open up southwestern Virginia to not just highways, to economic development, to a place where our children can stay here and have jobs.”
Groves said he believes businesses will come once the transportation infrastructure is in place because flat land will be available on surface-mined sites along the highway and the region has the work force to support them.
So far, just one business — Sykes Enterprises — has located on an industrial site near the under-construction highway. But officials say more will come as the highway gets closer to completion.
“In my opinion, this is going to be the greatest economic development boom that far Southwest Virginia has ever experienced,” said Bowie. “I won’t be around to see it completed, but the children and grandchildren of those here are going to experience the benefits. It’s going to be a whole new world for far Southwest Virginia.”
James Keen, at-large rural member on the transportation board from Vansant, said Tuesday that while gaining a highway, Dickenson County will lose one of its claims to fame in the deal.
“It’s going to finally shut them up over there,” he joked. “They say they don’t have a single inch of four-lane road. We’re going to take the road right to them.”
Driving Forward
Both ends of the completed road section appear to end at steep, tree-covered hillsides. But it’s not hard to imagine them with the lower, terraced appearance of the completed road section, which rides the ridgeline with valley fills to bridge the gaps.
“We’ll move this whole mountain,” explained Lawson, who said another interchange nearby, where the expressway is to meet U.S. Highway 460, will eventually resemble the place where Interstates 81 and 77 meet at Wytheville.
Jeff Powell, VDOT’s project manager for the Coalfields Expressway, said working with the coal companies eliminates the need to build most of the large bridges in the original plan — and, in so doing, saves taxpayers big money.
He said Alpha, with much larger equipment and lots of experience moving mountains, can do the work much faster than VDOT.
Groves said Alpha’s entire portion of the project — about 30 miles — could be completed in six or seven years if the permits and the money are forthcoming.
That, of course, is subject to approval by various federal and state agencies. But to the officials gathered Tuesday, the completion of the highway’s first section was a sign that construction of the east-west highway through the mountains is moving forward sooner rather than later.
“This is something we’ve looked for a long time,” said Carroll Branham, chairman of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, “and it looks like it’s finally coming true.”
—By Debra McCown, TriCities
