ENVIRONMENTALISTS CRITICIZE PROJECT Group Gives Thumbs-Down To Coalfields Expressway
Reported by: Associated Press
Web Producer: Heath Harrison
Reported: Feb. 4, 2013 10:47 AM EST
Updated: Feb. 4, 2013 11:10 AM EST
Eyewitness News Photo
Grundy, Buchanan County, Virginia
The Coalfields Expressway project in Virginia is getting a thumbs-down from the Sierra Club.
The national environmental group ranks the project among its 50 worst transportation projects in the nation.
The Coalfields Expressway would run from Pound in Wise County through Dickinson and Buchanan counties to Raleigh County in West Virginia.
In a recent report, the Sierra Club said there is little traffic demand for a four-lane highway in the region. The group also claims the highway is being built solely for fossil fuel development.
Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Michelle Earl told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that the Coalfields Expressway will open the region to economic development.
Coal companies are recovering coal reserves as they prepare road bed for the highway. Earl said that synergy makes the project feasible.
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