Senator Capito brings federal highway administrator to tour Corridor H project

PARSONS, W.Va. (WBOY) — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who has long pushed for federal funding for Corridor H, brought Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt to West Virginia on Tuesday to see how the project is going and the challenges that remain.

During the tour, Bhatt traveled the entire 130 miles of Corridor H and was able to see what has been built and what still needs to be built.

12 News spoke with Bhatt to hear his insights on the project thus far.

I run a couple of state DOTs and I want to compliment West Virginia DOT for all of their efforts here and I want to compliment the senator, I think she’s a great leader for transportation at the national level, but really, clearly, ever since I’ve known her, she’s been very focus on Corridor H and the importance of it. I think having run a couple of state DOTs and worked in Kentucky and Colorado and a couple of those places, I know how important transportation projects too rural America are, to the economy, for safety and so I think I’m really excited to see what has been built, what is being built and how we can get the future corridors built as well.

Senator Capito and Bhatt discussed the challenge of building the highway in a mountainous region, along with issues related to electric vehicles and the environment.

12 News also spoke with Senator Capito about the benefits of Corridor H.

I think the benefit is the same thing the administrator sees everywhere across the country, its access, its commerce, its safety, its ability to bring people in for tourism, for economic development, to move goods back and forth across the county more safely and maybe in a lot of cases once this comes through more quickly. We’ve seen the care that West Virginia DOT is taking to make sure they’re crossing all of the t’s and dotting all the i’s on the environmental impacts to make sure they’re doing it. These are West Virginians that are building and designing these roads so it’s important for them as well. And for the opponents, I think once it’s built, they will love it.

Capito was unsure when the project may be completed but has high hopes.

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