On February 9, the United States Court of Appeals declared that West Virginia’s highway department could not split the 100-mile Corridor H into smaller segments and build some while studying others. Section 4(f) of the federal transportation law protects historical, recreational, and other sites from adverse impacts by federally-funded highways. The Court ordered WVDOT "to complete the section 4(f) process before proceeding further with the Corridor H project."

Most work on the highway had been held up since November by the Court of Appeals’ injunction. The only exception was the Elkins northern bypass, a three-and-a-half-mile extension of the Corridor from US 33 West to US 219 North. Since the bypass, unlike most of the project, had a demonstrated need and logical termini, Corridor H Alternatives and the other plaintiffs had consented to its construction. The contracts underway reached as far as Laurel Mountain Road. Last month’s decision raised the question whether that work, too, must stop until the 4(f) studies were done.

Now, the parties have agreed that construction may continue while they enter into mediation on possible changes in the project. They will ask the Court to modify its order to allow work on the northern bypass as far as its first approach to US 219, a little north and east of Laurel Mountain Road. No further right-of-way acquisition, i.e., taking of property, will be allowed until the studies are complete. The purpose of the mediation is to find alternatives that can avoid or reduce impacts to historic sites and areas.

The Elkins bypass could merge into an upgraded US 219, which would be sufficient to carry projected traffic to Parsons and then north and east. That alteration of the proposed alignment would avoid the Shavers Fork Valley, where the four-lane version would have caused severe impacts to the Corrick’s Ford Civil War Battlefield, Otter Creek Wilderness, Fernow Experimental Forest, other parts of the Monongahela National Forest, and the Shavers Fork itself, a candidate for Wild and Scenic River status.

We all know Hugh Rogers, don’t we? He and Ruth and a fair number of others have had their fingers in the dike for a looong time now -- taking to task the ill-conceived delusions of nearly all of West Virginia’s political structure and bureaucracy – holding back that colossal boondoggle and environmental outrage, the still proposed Corridor H! Hugh is also a director of the WVHC