By Matt Harvey
Nearly $2 billion has been spent on Corridor H since it was first conceived in 1965, yet there’s still key work to be done before the four-lane connecting Weston to the Virginia border becomes a full reality.
Work on Corridor H began a little bit before 1975 — so about 50 years ago.
And some are still fighting tooth and nail to stop completion of the project, or to move it in different directions that would add more cost and more time.
Consider this for a minute: The Holland Tunnel that connects New York City and New Jersey took about seven years to build, starting in 1920.
The Channel Tunnel that travels about 31 miles under the English Channel and connects England with France took six years.
Yet here we are, waiting, waiting, waiting, on Corridor H.
There are various reasons that some still don’t want Corridor H done. They believe if the four-lane highway is opened in their area, folks will stop driving through their communities, and that’s a possibility.
Others are worried that some of West Virginia’s most beautiful country will be overrun with trucks and visitors, and some of that will happen.
But the bottom line goes back to that $2 billion.
What did taxpayers all across the country (lots of federal money involved) get for all that money they provided over the years?
I keep thinking about Dolly Sods and the Canaan Valley whenever I consider this issue.
Selfishly, I’d love for it to be kept a local thing.
But the Dolly Sods and Canaan that I knew when I first moved here in the late 1980s no longer really exists — the parts of Corridor H that have been completed from the Virginia border to Davis in the years since make it a mecca to out-of-state visitors who now can much more easily visit.
Those who make a living off tourism in Tucker County probably like it just the way it is, because the easy traveling stops at their door, with a big mountain to descend and a city to traverse before getting to the next easy section outside Parsons (which should be done pretty soon).
Opening the four-lane highway might mean some tourists keep on going to Elkins, or maybe to Snowshoe, or to parts of North Central West Virginia. It also means that more people throughout Northern and Central West Virginia might be more likely to take trips to Tucker County’s mountains.
And it also might mean more people from out of state move further into West Virginia.
Most of all, though, a completed Corridor H makes good on the promise from way back in the mid-1960s of a route from Central West Virginia across the mountains, and to the Virginia border — a promise that so far has meant a lot of West Virginians already had to give up their land and their views.
Going back on that promise now and leaving the project undone would be a real punch in the gut to the families that had to give up their property for what state and federal officials deemed the greater good.
Members of Congress, members of the Trump administration, and Gov. Morrisey and state officials should move the project forward with alacrity.
It’s time to finish the project — they shouldn’t let the voices of today drown out the 50 years of history of this project, and the concessions that many others already had to make.
And then the Congress and the White House also should push Virginia officials to complete the road to Interstate 81 in that state; doing so would not only open up West Virginia to a lot of commerce, it also would provide another viable route to quickly move inland in an emergency for the millions of residents who live in the Washington/Baltimore area.
