Mullens to Pineville: Five

Sep 25, 2023

Photo by Rick Barbero/CNHI News W.Va.

A section of the Coalfield Expressway near Mullens is pictured. Pending funding availability, it will likely be 2027 before next eight miles are finished.

By Mary Catherine Brooks

CNHI News W.Va.

A team of West Virginia Division of Highways engineers, designers, and other specialists conducted a public hearing concerning the Coalfields Expressway routes from Mullens into Twin Falls Resort State Park and Pineville last week at Twin Falls Resort State Park.

The project includes a five-mile stretch of the new highway from Mullens to Twin Falls Resort State Park and a three-mile link from Twin Falls toward Pineville.

Environmental impact studies on the projects are underway or have been completed.

Pending funding availability, it will likely be 2027 before motorists are driving on the new eight miles of the four-lane.

The Twin Falls connector will take 18 homes, located in the Caloric and Nuriva areas of Mullens, and will pass near the current Mullens Elementary School, housed in the former Conley High building.

While the DOH looked at several areas, the selected route is the only one that works for a couple of reasons, according to DOH officials.

The DOH conducted sub-surface exploration and core borings show the area is blanketed with underground coal mine activity that has to be avoided.

Additionally, the grade must be matched to the completed section of the four-lane already coming into Mullens and the area selected is the one that works best for that as well, according to Jason Foster, DOH engineer.

The homeowners impacted by the road have been notified and they will be paid fair market value for their property, according to Foster.

Several homeowners attended the hearing.

George Lambert built his home in 1980; he and wife raised their two children there.

"We’ve looked all over Mullens and can't find anything," he said. "Everything in Beckley starts at $200,000; I can't afford that. But, what are you going to do?"

June Eldreth and her husband built their eight-bedroom home right after they married 50 years ago.

Now a widow, she is 82 and said the state only wants a portion of her property.

"It's all or nothing," she emphasized.

Another homeowner, who did not want to be identified, said she did not want to leave her property.

"It's perfect," she emphasized, with tears in her eyes. "It's my home."

"I’m going to do everything in my power to bring pressure on these land companies to let go of some of their land at bargain basement prices," emphasized state Sen. David "Bugs" Stover, R-Wyoming, after watching several homeowners talk with the DOH officials.

In Wyoming County, 87 percent of land is owned by out-of-state landowners, the majority of which are land companies.

The land companies could let go of parcels where as few as five or as many as 30 homes could be built, Stover said.

The Coalfields Expressway opened in Mullens on Oct. 1, 2020 – 31 years after the project was first launched with a legislative resolution. It was Wyoming County's first four-lane road.

The Mullens link was extended from the 6.9-mile Sophia to Slab Fork section in Raleigh County, which opened to the public in 2009.

It took nearly a dozen more years for the new four-lane to reach Wyoming County.

It has significantly increased traffic from across southern West Virginia into Mullens and recreational trail riders have found they can drive all the way on four-lane highways from anywhere in the country into the small town.

Gov. Jim Justice broke ground Aug. 1 on the 5.12-mile section from Indian Ridge, the border between McDowell and Wyoming counties, to W.Va. Rt. 16. The section is expected to be completed in 2026 and will be McDowell County's first four-lane.

In 2001, a 1.5-mile section of unpaved, graded four-lane was constructed near what would become the site of FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) McDowell on Indian Ridge, four miles north of Welch. The section was then forgotten until Gov. Justice broke ground on the same site earlier this month.

Right-of-way is currently being obtained for the Welch to W.Va. 16 stretch.

Next year, the environmental impact study will be completed on the seven-mile link that will take the Expressway from W.Va. Rt. 16 to Pineville, with construction scheduled to begin in 2026.

Designated as U.S. Rt. 121, the Coalfields Expressway will traverse 62 miles across McDowell, Wyoming and Raleigh counties in West Virginia when completed, and another 51 miles in Virginia, from Pound, in Wise County, through Dickenson and Buchanan counties.

Once all planned sections of the Coalfields Expressway are completed, it will eventually connect the West Virginia Turnpike at Beckley with U.S. 23 at Slate, Va.

2:00 p.m., Graveside service at Oakwood Cemetery in Princeton.

1:00 p.m. in the Chapel of the Memorial Funeral Directory in Princeton. Entombment will follow in Roselawn Memorial Gardens in Princeton.

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