
Route of proposed Coalfields Expressway
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
While perusing today’s edition of the Roanoke Times, I ran across an article that astounded me. It concerned a meeting recently in Southwest Virginia about the Coalfields Expressway. I remembered hearing about this proposed highway many, many years ago and thought that it had been dismissed as a pipe dream. It turns out that the idea (and hope) is still alive.
The Coalfields Expressway would be a 115-mile federal four-lane, divided highway running from the intersection of I-64 and I-77 near Beckley, West Virginia to U.S. Rt. 23 in Pound, in Wise County. West Virginia has opened 15 miles of its 66-mile portion of the proposed highway and another 21 miles are in various stages of construction or planning. Virginia has begun constructing 7 miles of its 50-mile portion. That stretch overlaps with Rt. 460, linking Grundy to Kentucky. The cost of the Virginia portion is estimated at over $3 billion. Continue reading