An additional contract for construction on the Coalfields Expressway in Raleigh County is among projects advertised for upcoming Division of Highways’ bidding, Governor Bob Wise announced recently.

“This project is the third one for four-lane grading and drainage in the Sophia area,” the governor said. “It continues northward from two contracts totaling approximately 2.2 miles and costing nearly $13 million already under way from Surveyor Creek Road.” Noting that a federal appropriations bill would provide about $8 million of the cost of the new contract that would “be part of this new economic lifeline for the people of southern West Virginia,” Wise said the efforts of Senator Robert C. Byrd and Congressman Nick Joe Rahall had made the contract possible. He said he was also grateful for members of the Coalfields Expressway Authority and its executive director, Richard Browning, “for their hard work in support of the highway.”

Scheduled for September 25 bidding, the Raleigh County contract calls for construction of the interchange of WV 54 and WV 16 at Water Tank Road. Some 2.2 million cubic yards of excavation will be necessary to create the four-leg diamond interchange, which will extend north to tie into five-lane WV 16 near the Lester Mall shopping center. Another contract to provide bridges at the interchange is expected to be bid in a few months, with a paving contract to be bid when the four projects are complete.