Conservation groups on both sides of the state line are asking a federal court to stop construction of a four-lane highway from Wardensville, West Virginia to the Virginia border. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
Corridor H is a four-lane highway that's been gradually replacing sections of Routes 33, 219, and 48 through West Virginia since the 1990s. It was planned to connect Interstate 79 with I-81, near the I-66 junction. The Corridor H Authority says the route would increase manufacturing and timber exports out of West Virginia, and tourism to the Mountain State.
About 20 miles of two-lane road lies between where Corridor H ends in Wardensville and I-81. This is one of the two final sections of the planned freeway that haven't been built – and the Virginia Department of Transportation has no intention to construct their end, opting instead to make lower-impact safety improvements they say will be sufficient to handle traffic through the year 2102.
In light of this, conservation groups are trying to stop the planned 6.8 mile section that would end at the Virginia line. The Virginia Wilderness Committee, or VWC, and Stewards of the Potomac Highlands sued the Federal Highway Administration and West Virginia Department of Transportation earlier this year.
Attorney and VWC Board Member Andrew Young said they asked the federal court for an injunction at the end of August, hoping to force the government agencies –
ANDREW YOUNG: To make considerations for spot improvements for the road, rather than forcing a major four-lane highway through national forest lands, national park lands, treasured small towns like Wardensville for an immense price tag of $540 million at least.
The government agencies argue these new plaintiffs are bound by a settlement agreement from 2000, in which several other conservation groups essentially agreed to stop suing over this project unless the agencies failed to meet several specific conditions.
Conservationist and VWC Board Member Lynn Cameron explained the organization's stance against less than seven miles of road.
LYNN CAMERON: It would cut through 2.4 miles of the George Washington National Forest – a very special area, habitat to some endangered species, unfragmented forest. And then it would just end abruptly where the Tuscarora Trail crosses the current Route 55.
They expect a federal judge to rule on the injunction by the end of September.
