CHARLESTON, WV — Gov. Jim Justice announced during his 2024 State of the State Address that construction for the next section of Corridor H from Kerens to Parsons will soon be underway.

The project will pave all four lanes of a 3.3-mile section of Corridor H from US 219 to the interchange with WV 72 and allow the WVDOH to open a new section of Corridor H to traffic. The project will be paid for with bonds sold through Gov. Justice’s $2.8 billion Roads to Prosperity program.

“I’m excited to announce we’ve approved another award for Corridor H, and we are getting really close,” Gov. Justice said during his address. “Corridor H, my gracious sakes-a-living, will link up to DC and bring us jobs like you can’t imagine. We need to finish it.”

J.F. Allen Company made the successful bid of $22,919,328.

Building Corridor H from Kerens to Parsons is divided into five projects. The section from US 219 to WV 72 is section two. Paving work on section two will be done concurrently with paving on section one, which carries Corridor H from Kerens to US 219.

West Virginia Paving was awarded a contract for $29.9 million in 2021 for paving work on section one. Sections one and two are expected to open to traffic in the summer of 2025.

Kerens to Parsons carries Corridor H through some of the most rugged terrain on the entire route. In 2015, Kokosing Construction Company Inc. was awarded a contract for $209.7 million for the grading, drainage, and construction work for the first section of the Kerens to Parsons project. Kokosing was awarded a contract in 2019 for the grading, drainage, and construction work on section two, with a bid of $175.7 million.

When Gov. Jim Justice took office in 2017, he made completing Corridor H a priority of his administration. Now about 90 percent complete, the four-lane highway begins at Weston and travels across central West Virginia to eventually link up with Interstate 81 in Strasburg, Virginia.

The highway is expected to open some of West Virginia’s most remote areas in Grant, Tucker, and Hardy counties to economic development, connect West Virginia’s highlands with eastern ports, speed travel times through the mountains, and provide a smooth, safe highway for travelers and residents.