And Another One: Coal Companies to Perform Virginia Highway Study

by Rick Steelhammer, Charleston Gazette, Jan. 30, 2007

Two coal companies operating in the path of Virginia’s segment of the proposed Coalfields Expressway (will do a study) for the cash-strapped highway project.

Pioneer Group Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources will evaluate possible alignments for the four-lane highway as it crosses their coal reserves, taking into account areas in which coal recovery could take place and be incorporated into the roadway’s design, reducing the amount of public funds needed to build the project.

(A Virginia Dept. of Transportation official) announced that a $2 million grant… created by the Virginia Assembly to assist private-public partnerships in transportation projects, would be used to pay for the study.

The study will provide… officials with the information needed to determine the viability of a "coal synergy" solution for the Coalfields Expressway…It will also support efforts to convince the Federal Highway Administration to restore federal funding for the 51-mile Virginia segment of the project, he said.

Citing soaring cost estimates and a lack of progress…the Federal Highway Administration in 2005 ordered a halt to further federal funding of the road between the Virginia-West Virginia border…

VDOT had hired Kellogg, Brown & Root, the engineering and construction arm of Halliburton Industries, to perform the design work. The study to be produced by the coal companies is expected to be complete by mid-summer…

"Removing coal during construction can help reduce the cost of building the expressway, which in turn reduces the burden on taxpayers," said Michael J. Quillen, Alpha’s chairman and CEO.

"As the coal industry winds down in the mountains, it will be so important to bring in other industries and people to the area," said Clyde Stacy, president of Pioneer. "We look forward to working with Alpha and moving this project forward."

This is OVEC saying, gee thanks! We are just so glad you realize the coal industry is winding down, as you pretend it’s a favor to us to blow up every mountain and bury every stream you can. Gee, we’ll have a road so we can more easily see the destruction.