Environmental groups in both West Virginia and Virginia repeated a call for an updated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Wardensville to Virginia line section of the long-controversial Corridor H highway after a hearing Tuesday, April 22, in Hardy County. Citizens expressed concerns about drinking water, traffic patterns, taking of private farmland and George Washington National Forest, and loss of business on bypassed Main Street, as about 60 people attended the hearing at East Hardy High School.
Lewis Leslie Strosnider relayed a message from his hospitalized sister Cindy Cain Strosnider Orndorff, “[if Corridor H goes through], Wardensville would be a ghost town. Landowners will lose their land for pennies on the dollar. Our farm has been in the family since 1877. Native trout streams will be destroyed, and the Tuscarora Trail on top of the mountain.”
Kirsten Johnson, who works at Macks Bingo restaurant on Main Street, said she is a lifetime resident of Wardensville and wants to stay. “This road to nowhere is bypassing somewhere—the town of Wardensville.”
Loki Kern of Friends of Blackwater recorded all the speakers at the Corridor H Wardensville April 22 hearing on YouTube https://youtu.be/oagXQBeTZEk?si=MZZT_ayV5-ZoY-j2. Kern said West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) had turned down the Coalition’s request to broadcast the hearing on Zoom, so the group decided to do their own recording.
WVDOH and the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) on April 1 released an Environmental Assessment (EA), a less comprehensive document than an EIS. WVDOH’s timetable calls for construction on the Wardensville section to begin later this year, assuming that the EA process results in a Finding of No significant Impact. However, FHWA, in announcing the hearing, has left open the possibility of doing a full EIS. The public may comment on the EA until June 1. Information on WVDOH’s Corridor H page at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/476b7a6eddf240ec9a0f19e59f89e473
Much of the 100 mile four-lane is complete between Elkins and Wardensville, except for two environmentally sensitive sections in Hardy and Tucker County. WVDOH estimates the Hardy section to cost $485 million and Tucker County to cost over $800 million.
Those who voiced support for Corridor H at the hearing pointed to dangerous curves and steep grades on the current Route 55 between Wardensville and Virginia. The Save Wardensville Coalition addressed this concern by distributing map brochures suggesting several possible spots for passing lanes on Route 55.
Corridor H is the last built of the Appalachian Corridor Highways, conceived in the 1960s to boost rural economic development. Several speakers at the hearing pointed out that times have changed, and local farm and tourist business has grown. Further, since 1995, the Commonwealth of Virginia has not included Corridor H in its design or funding plans—meaning that its original terminus at I-66 and I-81 is questionable. WVDOH’s designs shown in the EA call for the four-lane to fade back into two lanes at the state line, and for current Route 55 to be cut off. Shenandoah County and the town of Strasburg, VA passed resolutions in 2022 reaffirming their opposition to building Corridor H.
Environmental groups assert that the streams, forests, wildlife, and residents’ way of life that would be destroyed by a huge highway in the mountains is more valuable than what would be gained. An updated EIS, they say, could more accurately analyze the costs and benefits.
The Save Wardensville Coalition includes Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, Friends of Blackwater, Stewards of the Potomac Highlands, Virginia Wilderness Committee, and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. Also speaking at the hearing was Than Hitt of WV Rivers Coalition, who emphasized the impact of construction on Wardensville’s wellhead protection area due to the area’s fractured sandstone/limestone geology.
Citizens and groups can submit comments for the official public record until June 1 on the WVDOH Corridor H website at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/476b7a6eddf240ec9a0f19e59f89e473 U.S. Congress members and Senators in both states can be contacted anytime.