I just returned from several days at Snowshoe and once again was delighted to drive the finished part of Corridor H.
What is the current status of the Wardensville to Baker part of the road? I saw a bridge that appeared to remain under construction and I did not see any work to building any sort of Wardensville exit. You have mentioned that some company is really late with work on the bridge...any idea when the Wardensville to Baker segment will be opened? And where will the entrance be...hopefully on the Virginia side of Wardensville...so we miss the speed traps!
Thanks for the info.
The Colonel

Virginia is not supporting Corrider H, sorry

Colonel - I've got 'Alright' news and not so good news for you regarding Corridor-H. For the most part there hasn't been anything to report at all regarding Corridor-H. Construction has been at a complete standstill since October either due to winter or due to other unknown reasons. I'm sort of leaning towards the other 'unknown' reasons at this point.

The good news is that roughly 90-95% of the construction is completed on the Baker to Wardensville section. The earth has been moved, pavement has been laid, signs have been erected, guardrails have been installed. Even the roadway has been painted leading upto the bridge. Everything is ready to be driven on except for the McCauley Bridges and Wardensville entrance.

Regarding the McCauley Bridges, currently last I heard there was a 6 man construction crew dedicated to the bridge to lay the rebar, pour the concrete, and construct he roadway surface for both bridges. Just to give a side note, both of these bridges are longer than the massive bridge outside of Moorefield. So you can imagine that having 6 guys handle all of that work will simply delay it longer and longer. There was an article in our local paper, the Moorefield Examiner, several months back with county commissioners fuming over the delay in construction. The state has imposed fines of $32,000 a day against the company doing the work which is C.J. Mahan Inc. from Ohio. Each day when I drive past the site, I'm lucky if I see two or three pickup trucks parked on site indicating there are any workers there.

The bad news I mentioned above is that it appears that this bridge won't be open until August 2006 at the earliest. Previous estimates by the state is that they want to have it open in May of this year, but obviously that isn't going to happen. My own estimates have been blown out of the water as at one point I had expected the bridges to open by September of 04, then that got pushed back to Spring/Summer 05, and finally my latest estimate has been fall of 2006. I'm holding to my latest 'guestimate' as it appears October 2006 will be the earliest this bridge can get finished under current conditions.

Now for the 'alright' news. Construction has started for the Wardensville entrace to Corridor-H. However you and many others will be sorely disappointed to know that you will still have to travel through Wardensville to reach this entrance. Due to the litigation and settlement process between WV-DOH and Corridor-H Alternatives, the state is now allowed to build CorridorH closer than 4 miles to the WV/VA border so as not to dump all traffic on Route 55/North Mountain. Basically for all of you skiiers going to CV/TL, you will still need to slowly go through Wardensville.

Upon leaving Wardensville and driving past the Mountaineer Restraunt you will have about a mile before reaching the entrance. During this time make sure you do NOT exceed 40mph because the town now has an unmarked cop car. Anyway as you cross that tiny little bridge over Trout Run and then hit that looong straight away where there is a neighborhood of houses on both sides of the road, you are almost to the entrance. The entrance will merge with exsisting Rt 259/55 at the bottom of Sandy Ridge, or the first mountain incline outside of Wardensville for those of you unfamiliar with local names. It will be here that you will make a left where the current Trout Run Cut-Off road is at to access Corridor-H and drive to Moorefield.

However, construction has been stalled on this portion since October. The earth was moved, again, to make way for this new entrance. However that is all that has been done. No graveling or paving has been done at all. Construction equipment is long gone from this site. I don't suspect that this site is much of a concern for the state considering the McCauley Bridges aren't yet finished. Once crews start on this site again, it could be completed within 1-2 months tops.

Basically that should bring you and everyone else upto date on Corridor-H. The end result will be that you will still need to drive through Wardensville to get to the highway. Don't look for Corridor-H to be extended beyond Wardensville in the next 15 years. Houses are going up, the state is out of money, so that if plans for this extension ever do come into play, the opposition to loosing homes will be stronger than ever and more than likely, chances are that this part may never get built.

Bawalker:

Thanks for the update. By my calculations, Corridor H will be "hands down" the best route to CV once the Baker-Wardensville section is complete for DC skiers. The web site predicts this 6.5 mile section will open this Spring or Summer, but as we all know, the web site is often wrong in its predictions.

The next push will be from Moorfield to Scherr and then Bismark.

How about progress from Moorfield towards Scherr? Any news on that front?

John