By Bob Aaron

April 21, 2019 - West Virginia's southern coalfields may finally have something they've waited years for -- top quality road access.

A four-lane section of the Coalfields Expressway that started 29 years ago is now only months from completion.

Ground was broken Thursday afternoon to pave nine miles of four-lane from Slab Fork to Mullens. The $33 million road bond project will link Mullens in Wyoming County to four-lane roads in Raleigh County.

The bonding authority came in a 2017 vote, but the Coalfields Expressway link has been proposed for nearly three decades, so long that the already paved segments south of Beckley are starting to show serious wear.

“As a business owner in Wyoming County, we feel like this is going to make a great impact in the entire county, not just the town of Mullens,” Wyoming County Commissioner Jason Mullens said.

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said he’s confident major infrastructure legislation will be coming out of Washington. He says with so many plans, and a good relationship that he has with the Trump administration, a lot of the rest of this project can get done.

“We’re focused on maintenance, but as you can see, we’re still going to deliver our Roads to Prosperity program. We’re going to deliver our federal aid program. We’re going to get every job that we say we’re going to get done, done,” Jimmy Writston with the Division of Highways said. “

The Roads to Prosperity program also includes plans to extend the Coalfields Expressway from Welch to the Coalfields Expressway/King Coal Highway interchange at West Virginia Route 16.

The paving work is scheduled to be completed by October.