In the News

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
By Editorial Staff
© December 11, 2011
Full story here

The ongoing Southwest Virginia corridor construction of the Coalfields Expressway is an excellent example of what can be accomplished through public-private partnerships.

The Virginia Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that it had negotiated a $3.8 million amendment to its existing public-private transportation act. The amendment green lights Alpha Natural Resource’s preliminary engineering of the Pound Connector and Doe Branch sections of the Coalfields Expressway, according to Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Area lawmakers, including Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Russell, and Delegate James W. “Will” Morefield, R-Tazewell, along with U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., applauded the news.

The 4.8-mile Doe Branch section will link the Route 460 Connector Phase II and Hawks Nest segment in Buchanan County and travel west to Route 80 in the Haysi area of Dickenson County. The Pound Connector is about 6.8 miles, beginning at Route 23 near Pound in Wise County and extends into Dickenson County where it links with Route 83 via a connector road.

In addition to the $3.8 million for the preliminary engineering for the Coalfields Expressway, the amendment will bring an additional $119.75 million to the Route 58 improvements along a 36-mile corridor between Hillsville and Stuart, Va.

The public-private partnerships have allowed officials in Southwest Virginia to develop the roadbed of the future four-lane corridor through the extraction of coal. The concept has proven to be quite successful in Southwest Virginia and has helped to expedite construction of the Coalfields Expressway, a project that up until recent years was moving at an excruciatingly slow pace in Southwest Virginia.

In neighboring southern West Virginia, officials have also experimented with public-private partnerships, but on a slightly smaller scale. Such an agreement was actually first utilized back in 2001 when the first 1.5 non-paved miles of the Coalfields Expressway — or essentially the roadbed — was developed in Welch near the Indian Ridge Industrial Park. The same process was more recently utilized on a Mingo County segment of the King Coal Highway.

With federal funds becoming increasingly difficult to secure for highway projects in our region, the use of such public-private partnerships could become increasingly important in the future.

The Virginia General Assembly’s recent commitment to transportation, including McDonnell’s nearly $4 billion transportation package, has also played a critical role in the development of projects such as the Coalfields Expressway.

Virginia’s commitment to developing the future four-lane corridor — with assistance from private sector partners such as Alpha Natural Resources — is certainly welcomed and could be viewed as a model for future public-private agreements.