People learn more about the next King Coal Highway segment
Feb. 21—By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — Area residents examined maps and asked questions Tuesday about plans for an upcoming section of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County.
The West Virginia Department of Highways hosted a public information workshop at Bluefield High School so department officials could answer questions and take public comments.
Director Travis Long with the highway department's technical support division said the workshop was one part of the process required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
"This is one of the earlier stages of what we've been doing for clearing our NEPA process," Long said. "One of the first steps is to get public involvement. We wanted to come down and show everyone the next segment of the King Coal Highway which we're calling Segment 1; which will be the next restart after the John Nash Boulevard to (Route) 123, which would be Airport Road. This one will go from (Route) 123 Airport Road over to Littlesburg Road, gets to (Route) 20, then right before we get to 20, we'll stop. In the future there will be a bridge there."
The King Coal Highway segment will be a little over 2 miles long.
"This project will just be what we call a grade and drain, so it will be roadway not paved quite yet," Long said. "In the future it will be paved and that will give everyone from New Hope Road a direct access back over to John Nash Boulevard."
Residents could examine the route's maps and see if their property would be impacted. One woman told Long she would not be affected by the current segment, but the next one — from Littlesburg to Montcalm — could impact her.
"We have both the maps of the overall plan which is King Coal, which would be from the Princeton area-Bluefield all the way to Huntington, so that's the future plan for it," Long said. "That's the big plan, but the plan we're worrying about right now is this little segment to get from Airport Road over the New Hope (Road).
"It's pretty tough terrain. Mountains, a lot of dirt work for us there and some pretty good drainage projects, too," Long said.
One of the questions attendees had was if the project would cross their property. Johnny Meadows of Matoaka told Long he had helped a Montcalm-area resident build a house on 108 acres of land. The highway's route could go through the property within the next four years.
"Yes, to see if this guy needs to go ahead and start finding another piece of property and how soon it would be before they tear this house down that he just built," Meadows said about attending the workshop.
Meadows plans to attend a future meeting about the Montcalm segment when it is announced.
"It may still dodge his farm," Meadows said. "You never know."
Long said that determining how the public will be impacted by the project is part of the planning process.
"This NEPA process — the National Environmental Policy Act — process, it wants public input. It wants us to reach out to the public," he said. "The public's going to be the one affected by this work, so one portion of that is once we get to a certain stage in NEPA, we have to have that stage completed before we go to the right-of-way acquisition process. Right-of-way acquisition is when we would come out — we will identify all of the properties that are going to be affected — come visit the property owners. Sit down with them in their living room, talk to the about the process that's to come and how that's going to work. Make sure they're informed. Give them a direct contact that's local in the district."
The property's value is appraised, he said.
"We pay fair market value for properties, so they will assess their properties, their structures, any outbuildings, potentials if they have minerals or things like that they own there," Long said. "Then we will come back with an offer. That offer can be negotiated at some point and then if they accept the offer, we will start through the acquisition process and then we'll also pay them to relocate. We'll pay them property relocation costs. We do a lot of background work but we'll look to make sure there are suitable properties for them to have a place to go. That's part of our responsibility as well."
One property owner looking at the map of the highway's upcoming segment, Darrell Coleman, who lives near Route 20 in the Littlesburg area, said the route would cut his property into three pieces.
"Yes sir, the current design from the engineer in Charleston shows it coming through my property in the center of it, splitting it into three separate pieces, taking the middle one," Coleman said. "And that effect is going to be 20 to 25-acres plus cutting me and my house off from the world basically. The house will be on the side away from the highway, away from the woods and then the entrance to the property will be on the other side of the highway next to (Route) 20, and no one can give me answers as to why they even propose doing this."
Coleman said the state's process would not cover the time and investment he has put into his property.
"No sir, their fair market doesn't take into account that I've been working on this property the last 17 years," Coleman said. "It doesn't take into account that I retired three years ago and I've done nothing for three years but work on the property."
"To me the entire process is just not fair. If it was a 2-acre property with a house on it, pay me fair market value and I'll go find another one," Coleman said. "But I'm not going to find another 65-acre piece of property that lays the way mine lays, that's convenient the way mine's convenient. I'm five minutes from a grocery store."
Construction is anticipated to begin in the summer or fall of this year. People wishing to comment about the new King Coal Highway project can mail them to:
Travis Long
Director, Technical Support
Division WVDOH
1334 Smith Street
Charleston, WV 25301
Comments can also be submitted on the WVDOH website at http://go.wv.gov/dotcomment on the internet. The deadline is March 21.
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
