Serving Southwest and Southside Virginia

The Coalfields Expressway, a road construction project that could transform the far Southwest’s economy once completed, is one step closer to moving forward with a next critical phase that seeks to widen a 2.2-mile section within the so-called Corridor Q in Buchanan County to a four-lane highway. 

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, D-Va., announced Tuesday that they had secured $7 million in federal funding in the Senate appropriations bill to aid the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) in the design and construction stages of the project. 

The tax dollars are included in a $135 million package in federal funding for Virginia that is part of the spending bill for fiscal year 2023. The legislation is set to move through the Senate Appropriations Committee later this year, followed by a vote on the Senate floor and, later, in the House of Representatives.

“In consultation with VDOT, which will handle this construction project, we determined that widening this section of the Coalfields Expressway into a four-lane would be the most beneficial use of the funds, because it will help to further open up that area for economic development, tourism, health care, and a variety of benefits to the community,” said Jonathan Belcher, the executive director of both the Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority. 

“We are particularly grateful to our federal legislators for enabling this request. We cannot thank them enough for seeing the tremendous value of this project, which in my opinion is the single most important economic development project in the coalfield region of Virginia,” Belcher said.

The Coalfields Expressway – also dubbed CFX by transportation officials and formally designated U.S. Route 121 – is a proposed limited-access highway designed to provide a modern, safe and efficient transportation artery through the coalfields region of far Southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia. Once completed, the approximately 57-mile section in Virginia will travel from U.S. Route 23 near Pound through Dickenson and Buchanan counties to its connection with the West Virginia segments of the expressway leading to Interstate 64.

Corridor Q is adjacent to the industrial park at Southern Gap in Buchanan County, and current paving funds call for paving of just two lanes and a truck climbing lane. 

While the $7 million, which was the maximum amount that could be requested under the congressionally directed spending program, will not four-lane the entire section of the CFX from the Kentucky state line to Grundy, it will help to widen at least 2.2 miles into a four-lane – and potentially more – as VDOT evaluates how to best implement the project, Belcher said.   

The department is also looking at ways to expand the mileage that can be four-laned with these funds, Belcher added. One possible way is to expand the planned three-lane truck climbing lanes into four lanes, which would increase the mileage of the overall four-lane that could be accomplished with the $7 million. “We are working with the federal legislative offices on that potential modification,” Belcher said.

Considered the largest road project in Virginia’s history with a price tag up to $4 billion, progress has been slow for much of the 30 years since its inception, and the construction of the CFX in the commonwealth has not moved beyond its infancy stage.

But after the creation of the Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority in 2017, which is tasked with improving transportation into, from, within and through Southwest Virginia, the pace has picked up – especially once Congress allocated $1.9 million in the Fiscal Year 2022 government funding bill to pay for a new study that will revisit a 16.5-mile section proposed of the highway from Grundy to the West Virginia state line. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) estimates the cost for that section of the proposed route to be between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion.

Warner, Kaine and their GOP colleague from across the hall in the House of Representatives – Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem – met with board members of the Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority earlier this year to discuss the need for further funding of the CFX. 

In a joint email Tuesday, the two senators reiterated their support for the project. “Reliable, high quality transportation infrastructure – including well maintained expressways – are vital to Virginians’ quality of life and the strength of our local economies,” they said. “We’ve cleared the first hurdle by getting that funding into the Senate’s pending budget text, and will do all we can to make sure it’s in the final budget that gets across the finish line.”

State Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, who attended a meeting of Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority representatives and VDOT officials, including Secretary of Transportation Sheppard Miller, in Abingdon last spring, called the senators’ announcement “a major milestone” in the timeline of the project.

“I can’t say how excited I am to see this be a reality, and I want to thank the senators. We were really pushing and asking them to help us, and they came through,” Hackworth said in a phone interview, adding that every completed mile of the CFX will help transform the region’s economy with time. 

“When you have a transportation route that gets goods and services into your area, it is a natural springboard for businesses to locate here, which in return creates jobs and opportunities for our young people. This is a good day for Southwest Virginia,” Hackworth said.

In addition to the $7 million earmarked for the CFX, the budget bills – if passed as-is – include funding for the following projects in Southwest Virginia and Southside:

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Markus Schmidt is a reporter for Cardinal News. Reach him at markus@cardinalnews.org. More by Markus Schmidt

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