Keep WV Moving

CHARLESTON, W.Va. Corridor H may be just reaching its halfway point of construction, but supporters say the decades-long 145-mile highway project in central-eastern West Virginia already is helping the state's tourism and economic opportunities.
West Virginia transportation officials this week announced the completion of a 7.5-mile section of the corridor that is now open and the groundbreaking of another 10 miles that were expected to be paved and ready by the fall of 2010.
Those sections are part of a portion that will run from Baker to Forman, Division of Highways spokesman Brent Walker said Thursday. They will help bring the total amount of open roads on the corridor so far to about 76 miles next year, Walker said.
"This road is vital to West Virginia," Corridor H Coalition Secretary Phyllis Cole said.
West Virginia is among 13 states in the Appalachian Regional Commission's Appalachian Development Highway System, which includes 32 corridors. About six are in the Mountain State, said Guy Land, the commission's chief of staff.
Once completed, Corridor H will run from Weston to Wardensville and on to the Virginia state border, crossing through the Lewis, Upshur, Randolph, Tucker, Grant and Hardy county areas in West Virginia.
"Corridor H will open up our Mountain State to more robust travel - and as a result, new growth and employment, exciting opportunities for our tourism industry and an overall stronger economy," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a news release.
But because of the project's long timeframe and amount of federal funding, national media and government spending watchdog groups have called Corridor H the "Road to Nowhere."
About $1.5 billion in federal and state money has been spent on Corridor H since the 1960s, and another $1.5 billion is expected to help finish the job.
Corridor H and other remaining corridor projects in the Appalachian Development Highway System - which the commission said is about 85 percent completed - are expected to be ready by about 2035.
About $11.8 billion in federal and state funding was the remaining total cost for the entire project as of 2007, Land said, adding that the completed project is expected to bring a 3-to-1 return of investment, including by allowing companies to save money by moving goods much more cheaply and quickly than they could before.
"It is part of a larger regional highway system that is designed to open Appalachia up to national and international market, which will then help foster economic growth and development in West Virginia and the rest of Appalachia," Land said. "It's more than just a highway in West Virginia."
Corridor H will open up the eastern part of the state and allow for more economic development in communities along the way, Walker said.
"It's been called previously the 'Road to Nowhere'", Walker said. "You ask the folks that live in those towns along areas that are open right now if it's the 'Road to Nowhere' and you would soon find that that road has allowed accessibility to those areas, which allows for more economic development, more tourism visitors. There's certainly a lot of interesting sights and a lot of reasons to go to those areas."
Cole's organization asked to partner with the ARC and the West Virginia DOH to put together a workshop Thursday to provide an update on construction and what the anticipated impacts will be as far as economic development and tourism.
The West Virginia Ski Areas Association has touted the benefits of a completed portion from Weston to Elkins, saying ski traffic in the state has increased since that section was built in the mid-1990s.
About 7 percent to 8 percent of 600,000 daily lift tickets sold at West Virginia ski resorts over a five-month season included visiting skiers from the Ohio Valley Midwest region in the early 1990s, association spokesman Joe Stevens said.  At the time, people were using the old two-lane W.Va. 33, he said.
Since Corridor H opened at Weston and Elkins, resorts are now seeing Ohio Valley visitors make up 15 percent to 20 percent of about 800,000 daily lift tickets sold, Stevens said.
Finishing the corridor to Wardensville will help even more, he said.
"That's just going to open up the ski industry," Stevens said. "A tremendous amount of our visits come from the D.C.-Metro-Northern Virginia-Baltimore area.
"When Corridor H is finished and it's that much easier to travel from that northern Virginia-D.C. area to West Virginia, we feel those numbers are going to climb even more," Stevens said.
Stevens questioned criticism about Corridor H as a "Road to Nowhere," saying that skiers have said they would come back more often if it was easier to travel the state.
"How can they claim it's (a) 'Road to Nowhere' when it's already coming from somewhere?" Stevens added. "We feel we can show for the last decade where we've seen growth because of what has already been built and finished and used for over a decade."
Business expansion opportunities grew as the corridor shortened the drive time from Elkins to Buckhannon, Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, said. That commute used to take about 45 minutes to 50 minutes, but now the drive time is 15 minutes to 20 minutes "of good road," he said.
"When we opened up the highway between Buckhannon and Elkins it certainly gave a tremendous economic boost to both Upshur County and Randolph when it comes to employment and the ability of the residents to move from one area to another," Barnes said.
The four-lane corridor also could provide a safer route for travelers, Cole said, specifically mentioning a completed section at the eastern end from Wardensville to Moorefield. Before it was completed, travelers had to drive on old W.Va. 55 from Baker to the Virginia border, she said.
W.Va. 55 in the Baker area has 163 curves over about a 16-mile stretch, the West Virginia Department of Transportation has said on its Corridor H Web site.
The department has estimated that Corridor H, once completed, could lower the accident rate from driving along other roads in the overall corridor area by nearly 150 percent, the Web site said.
"Before when you were driving you were having to worry about staying in the road because it was narrow and very curvy," Cole added. "You couldn't even enjoy the vistas. Now the road is up high, and it's just breathtaking."
But funding, which West Virginia can receive through the Appalachian Regional Commission, was still a concern.
Because Congress approved adding another corridor in Alabama last year, highway appropriations have been reconfigured under the funding distribution formula, Clark and Land said. For West Virginia, that means a loss of about $50 million, they said.
Funding also can come through a new highway bill, and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has a pending request for $10 million in Corridor H funding, her office said.
"Corridor H is critical for promoting economic growth and opportunity through Appalachia," Capito said in a prepared statement. "We've already seen the benefits of the completed portions of Corridor H, and those opportunities will only grow with today's developments and the full completion of the highway.
The project has been held up long enough, Capito added.