Spring, and highway fights are busting out all over. Toward the end of April, a Putnam County resident threatened to sue over the new US 35. Ellen Mills had attended public meetings, read public notices, and made public comments, but she didn't know about a cheaper and less damaging alternative until she went to the state DOH office.

The Charleston Gazette quoted Mills: "I asked somebody, ‘Didn’t anyone come up with an option that wouldn’t displace these subdivisions?’" Bingo! She’d asked the right question of the rare right person. "They said, ‘Sure,’ and whipped out this West Option Five."

"I don't think I have personally reviewed Option five," explained Highways Commissioner Sam Beverage. Stories conflicted about when the option was devised and when it was dropped. Attempts to revive it will be worth watching.

Moving east, a proposal to reroute WV 15 from I-79 to Snowshoe got the attention of some Webster County residents. It would have paved a bank of Elk River all the way from Centralia, at the east end of Sutton Lake, to Webster Springs. Such parallel alignments damage rivers most. Apparently, DOH has gone back to the drawing board. Latest rumors place the I-79 link further south, at the US 19/Corridor L exit. That route would connect a new asphalt plant there with an enlarged quarry just below the Snowshoe ski resort. Quarry and road remain in dispute. So does the threat to the Elk.

East again and then south, a proposal to turn US 219 into "Continental One" aroused quick opposition in Greenbrier and Monroe counties. Dr. Craig Mohler, a Monroe County commissioner, told the Gazette, "We’d like to see the road widened in places and some attention drawn to the most dangerous curves. But instead there are the plans for a mammoth road that really would be built for people who do not live here while nothing is done to our existing road."

Sound familiar? Mohler’s group, Monroe 219, has gotten advice from Corridor H Alternatives. But they also have a Congressman, Nick Rahall, on their side, and no Senator’s name waiting to go on the proposed four-lane. Their demand for a more flexible alternative has held up the juggernaut.

Now that it’s four-laned all the way, Corridor L’s design has come into question. A local group asked for safer intersections in Fayetteville and Summersville. The DOH drew up cloverleafs that would have erased 94 homes, two motels, a restaurant, and several other businesses. Their motto seemed to be, "We can build on top of YOU."

Look around and you'll see strong opposition to WV 9 in the east, Corridor D around Parkersburg, and the ugly Mon-Fayette Expressway. Corridor H, the longest road fight of all, woke up citizens all over the state. And the nation! H has been put at the top of the list of 50 "Roads to Ruin" by Friends of the Earth and Taxpayers for Common Sense. The bigger-is-always-better mindset is under attack, even at the Federal Highway Administration, which has published a new guidebook, "Flexibility in Highway Design." It’s just in time for our mediation discussions.

We’re happy to get the help and to have the company.