By CHARLES OWENS
Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Nov. 17, 2008
BLUEFIELD — A looming change in the nation’s political landscape is providing renewed hope for supporters of the King Coal Highway.
Despite the decision last week by U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., to step down from his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Appropria-tions Committee, the future funding outlook for the King Coal Highway still looks bright, according to King Coal Highway Executive Director Mike Mitchem.
Mitchem said a larger Democratic majority in Congress, and having a Democrat in the White House, could help in the fight to secure additional federal dollars for local highway projects.
“Now with the new majority, I think we will have an even better chance of funding for the King Coal Highway, Coalfields Expressway and Shawnee Parkway,” Mitchem said.
Mitchem said Byrd will remain a force for southern West Virginia in the fight for future funding — despite his decision to step down as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I don’t think we will be hurt,” Mitchem said. “Sen. Byrd still has a lot of power, as well as Congressman Rahall. He (Byrd) has brought in money even when he’s not been on the majority side.”
With Congress working to craft a new federal highway bill, Mitchem said local supporters of the King Coal Highway will be returning to Washington early next year to seek additional funding for the project. That includes additional federal dollars necessary to extend the highway toward Stoney Ridge, Route 123 and the Mercer County Airport. Mitchem said officials also are looking at a 2010 completion date on a 12-mile section of the King Coal Highway in Mingo County.
Mitchem said the contractor working on the $17 million King Coal Highway bridge project in Bluefield is still on schedule for an October 2009 completion.
“All of the piers are now finished,” Mitchem said. “The next set of girders will be used on the southbound part of the bridge. They should be in next week. Then the deck will be used on pier two northbound. The next set will be in the southbound. He (the project manager) said they would tie it all in.”
Mitchem said the project hasn’t been slowed by the weather at this point.
“Right now, everything seems to be on schedule,” Mitchem said. “He (the project manager) said the early finish would depend upon the weather.”
When completed at some point in the future, the King Coal Highway will travel 95 miles through Mingo, Wayne, Wyoming, McDowell and Mercer counties with the Tolsia segment from Williamson to Huntington extending another 55 miles. It will interchange with the Coalfields Expressway in Welch near the Indian Ridge Industrial Park and the site of the new federal prison. The King Coal and Tolsia Highways represent the West Virginia corridors of Interstate 73/74.