Corridor H

West Virginia’s Corridor H highway project has been in development since the late 1960s as part of the Appalachian Development Highway System. As proposed, the highway is a massive almost 150 mile 4-lane highway running from Interstate 79 east through rural West Virginia ending in Wardensville WV, 7 miles short of the Virginia state border on State Route 48/55 west of Strasburg.

Although sections of the highway are built and operational, Corridor H continues to be controversial in West Virginia as residents question the massive cost of the road to taxpayers and the damage it has caused compared to its modest economic impact. If completed as envisioned by West Virginia legislators, the road will bulldoze through the Virginia state line, into the George Washington National Forest, through the Cedar Creek drainage and create a huge interstate exchange where the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park now lies, while offering almost no benefit to Virginians. 

Thankfully, Corridor H isn’t and has never been in any of the local or long-range transportation plans for the state. And, Virginia doesn’t have any plans to build its section from the state line to I-81 or I-66. Still, the Alliance remains vigilant as the project moves forward in West Virginia.

Top Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons