KATE COIL Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — A proposed $1 billion bond could help create a usable segment of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County if approved by state voters.
The bond has been proposed by Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox, and will be considered by the Legislature. If passed by lawmakers, the bond would require voter approval.
King Coal Highway Executive Director Mike Mitchem said Friday said if the measure were approved, it could mean a considerable leap forward for construction on the Mercer County section of the highway project. Money from the bond could go toward completion of a usable 2.39-mile section of the highway. The section could be built in Mercer County from the Christine West Interchange in Bluefield to Route 123 and the Mercer County Airport.
“The transportation commissioner is trying to see if they will get a billion-dollar bond for the Mercer County section out to Route 123,” Mitchem said. “The voters would have to approve the billion-dollar bond, and it would be nice to get that. We need between $66 million and $70 million to complete the range from Kee Dam.”
Mitchem was in Charleston Thursday when Mattox proposed a bond amended to borrow $1 billion that could complete 19 shelved road and bridge projects statewide. Mattox suggested the idea during a joint meeting of the House and Senate transportation committees. The King Coal Highway in Mercer County and the section of the Coalfields Expressway in Wyoming County were two of the projects Mattox said the bond could help finance.
Mitchem is hopeful legislators will pick up on the idea.
“It is something that they are up there talking about right now,” he said. “It’s always a possibility. We’re trying to stay positive. We hope it happens. We definitely need more funds.”
According to Mitchem, the King Coal Highway and many other highway projects nationwide have been in limbo since the federal government has not approved a new federal highway bill since 2005. During the past seven years, little federal funding has been acquired for the King Coal Highway project as a result.
“We just have to wait,” Mitchem said. “We won’t know anything until the transportation bill comes out and we are still waiting on that. It is past time for that bill. It’s supposed to be renewed every five years and it was last renewed in 2005.”
The current extension of the federal highway bill will expire in March.
Last year, the King Coal Highway and Coalfields Expressway lost $900,000 that had been earmarked for the projects due to a last minute Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Mitchem and other supporters of the King Coal Highway project traveled to Washington in October 2011 to request the needed $66.9 million in federal funds to continue construction of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County.
According to the Associated Press, West Virginia’s Constitution sets tight limits on state debt, requiring voters to approve financing bonds. They have agreed to at least seven road bond amendments since 1920.
The AP reported Mattox told lawmakers the bond could also help finance new jobs statewide.
“Expediting these projects will create more highway construction jobs, strengthen our economy and allow the opportunity for economic development adjacent to these projects,” Mattox told lawmakers. “It’s an investment, or it would be an investment.”
Mattox told lawmakers that between $65 million and $70 million would be needed annually for the next 30 years to pay off a $1 billion bond if it was approved.
Due to the lack of a new federal highway bill, Mattox told legislators highways are now mostly dependent on the State Road Fund for road construction and maintenance. The State Road Fund is mainly dependent on moneys from fuel taxes, vehicle sales and registration fees.
— Contact Kate Coil at kcoil@bdtonline.com