June 3, 2023 - Although the project is a year behind schedule, construction is finally winding down on a section of the King Coal Highway project at Airport Road near Bluefield. The tentative completion date for the $58 million project is late summer, which will open up a small segment of the future Interstate 73/74/75 corridor near Bluefield to traffic.

That’s the good news. The bad news, however, is that a second contract has yet to be awarded for another section of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County. Unless a federal funding award is announced, and a design and build contract is put out to bid, this all-important infrastructure project will once again be stalled near Bluefield.

This is an outcome our local, state and federal representatives should be unwilling to accept.

That’s not to say the road won’t be usable.

Both local motorists and out-of-state travelers will be able to utilize the Airport Road section of the King Coal Highway once it is finished later this summer, according to West Virginia Department of Highways District 10 Engineer Ryland Musick.

The section, located between the city of Bluefield and Interstate 77, starts at the K.A. Ammar Interchange linking traffic at Interstate 77 Exit 1 with the new Christine Elmore West Bridge and then the new bridge over Kee Dam before connecting with Airport Road.

Musick says additional design plans for future segments of the King Coal Highway are in the works. However, nothing has been officially announced to date for Mercer County, which is truly unfortunate.

While neighboring states such as South Carolina, North Carolina and Ohio are moving forward on the I-73/74/75 routing, the project is still moving at a painfully slow pace here in West Virginia. The final interstate routing is supposed to run from Detroit, Mich. to Myrtle Beach, S.C., opening up a large swath of southern West Virginia to interstate access. But additional segments of the local King Coal Highway corridor must be completed first in Mercer, McDowell, Wyoming and other counties before that can happen.

The next section of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County is supposed to take the four-lane corridor from the existing construction site at Airport Road across the mountain toward Littlesburg Road. From there, assuming that the new interstate would still be built in smaller sections and different contracts, it would then extend from the Montcalm area before ultimately exiting Mercer County and extending along Indian Ridge into McDowell County. From there it would interchange with the Coalfields Expressway in Wyoming County.

So when is another design and build contract going to be awarded for Mercer County?

When is additional federal funding going to be announced for the next section of the roadway in Mercer County?

Billions upon billions of dollars have already been expended by Congress in the name of infrastructure — even though some of that money is being spent on green energy projects that don’t meet the traditional definition of infrastructure. That would be roads, bridges and broadband.

So why aren’t any of the federal infrastructure dollars being used on the all-important King Coal Highway project?

Who is going to step up and announce federal, and/or state funding, for the next section of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County?

Will it be U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va? Will it be U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va? Will it be U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va? Will it be Gov. Jim Justice?

Everyone is waiting. And so far the silence from our elected leaders has been deafening.