Another really nice picture of what it will be like to drive eastbound into Wardensville.


A SPECTACULAR picture at the top of Pine Ridge looking east down on Corridor H. Saurkraut Run Bridges can be seen in the center with the Lost River sinks Bridges/area to the right.


Another SPECTACULAR view from the top of Pine Ridge looking east on recent paved sections of Corridor H.


Looking at Squirrel Gap Road. This section connects Corridor H with Rt 55 at the top of Sandy Ridge right outside of Wardensville.


Looking down on Corridor H from Squirrel Gap road intersection. The road in the distance is Squirrel Gap Road which after 11 miles of mountain winding, rocky driving connects with Thorn Bottom Road. All of that mountain terrian is George Washington National Forrest.


This is my most favorite shot of the day. I tried really hard to imagine that those were approaching snowclouds. Think snow!!

WOW! The scenery is just incredible. Again, while this road (at least in my view) has the potential to make travel much safer and quicker , I just hope that those beautiful mountains aren't dotted with ugly McMansions and McDonalds. Hopefully there are enough people along the corridor (from VA line all the way to Elkins), and I think there are, that will make sure that destructive development doesn't occur. The thing that makes Ocean City, Rehoboth, etc. nice places to go is the beach and ocean. West Virginia and Cannan Valley in partiucular (Deep Creek Lake also falls into this category) are nice places to go for the mountains and scenery. In the case of OC or RB, you can't build over the beach or ocean, but you can build over mountains, and destroy the landscape. DCL has plenty of conveniences, etc. which is great for many people. To a lot of people in the Baltimore area, DCL is the mountain resort of choice as OC is the beach resort of choice. But...mountain resorts are much more vulnerable to dense development than beach resorts, because many times people go to OC, etc. to party so hard that they don't even remember the trip, but the mountains serve as a quieter escape from the city. Take away the quiet escape, scenery, etc. and it's no longer a resort. Might as well just stay in Baltimore/Washington!

You said it all right there.

Incredible photos, bawalker. It is so nice to have a poster so close to the action. I would welcome your views on when the Wardensville to Baker section will be open. You suggested earlier that you thought early '05 but it seems to me that there has been a greatly increased pace in terms of both more men and equipment being thrown at this job.

The other value of CH is that those driving the road will now have these beautiful vistas. Say what you will of the current 55, you rarely get views like this and if you are driving, you are so busy trying not to wreck you only see 150 feet in front of your car. The Baker to Moorefield stretch has already provided some gorgeous views and Wardensville to Baker promise even more. Now if can just find a way to keep those pesky MacMansions out.

dmh - You all are quite welcome for the photos. Actually that was my first ever attempt at using a digital camera and I'm quite pleased with the results. Now... I can't wait till it snows and walk down from my friends house on Pine Ridge capturing snow storms or even summer thunderstorms crossing the mountains.

The opening date still is debatable, although I agree that more manpower is going into getting the highway finished but they still may be far enough behind they can't beat fall `04. No matter how much manpower is available it can't make concrete dry faster, etc. That is where the McCauley bridges are severely behind. They can only pour 1 section of a pier at a time and must wait a week before the forms come off. Then it's a matter of another week of installing the steel rebar, installing new forms, a day of pumping concrete into it and waiting another week. You get the idea so really it takes 2-3 weeks for one section to get completed.

Based on that rate it is going to be until late-July before the McCauley piers are finished and then comes the massive work of installing girders at the McCauley bridges. These bridges are higher and the piers are spanned further apart on more of a curve than the Lost River Sinks bridges meaning larger cranes will be involved with larger/taller/thicker girders involved. Trucking those girders on 81, then to Winchester, out US Rt 50, then south on Rt 259 is going to take some work and just loading them onto the piers will take weeks. Then weeks for the concrete decking, barriers, landscaping, etc. Well you get the idea. Just an interesting tip, 1 bridge of the LRS bridges takes 16-20 girders alone. So thats nearly 40 for the two bridges combined.

I feel like a stat machine today. lol