All schools in Upshur County will close at 1 p.m. today. All B-UHS sporting events today are canceled.

WVDOH to bid next section of Corridor H, Kerens to Parsons

Road Work

The West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) is getting ready to go to bid on the next contract for the Kerens to Parsons section of Corridor H.

The Roaring Run Bridge project will build a new bridge across Roaring Run Creek for a future Corridor H connector. The project site is not far from the current site of the Cheat River Bridge project and will be the last major bridge on Corridor H before the upcoming Mackeyville interchange and connector.

The project has cleared all environmental reviews and federal hurdles and is expected to go out for bid in September 2024.

“One section after another, we’re going to build this road,” said Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston, P.E. “Finally, we’ve jumped through all the hoops. We’ve satisfied all the federal bureaucracy, and we’re ready to advertise this contract for letting.”

When Gov. Jim Justice took office in 2017, he made completing Corridor H a priority of his administration. Corridor H begins near Weston and travels across central West Virginia, through Wardensville, 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 and tourism, speed travel times through the mountains and provide a smooth, safe highway for travelers and local residents.

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.

More than 120 miles of Corridor H is currently open to traffic, with about 30 miles left to complete.

To date, more than $1.93 billion has been spent on the four-lane highway.

“We’ve taken the lead from our governor to persevere,” Wriston said. “We never fail, because we never quit.”

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