Coalfields Expressway portion opens in Buchanan

A 2.74-mile portion of the Corridor Q project — 7 miles of which are the only part of the Coalfields Expressway currently under development in Virginia — has opened in Buchanan County.

Elected officials, Virginia Department of Transportation staff, Coalfields Expressway Authority members and Bizzack Construction held a ribbon cutting Friday for the road.

Seven miles of Corridor Q (designated as U.S. Route 460) overlap with the proposed $4 billion, 115-mile Coalfields Expressway (CFX), also known as U.S. Route 121. Authorized by Congress in 1995, the CFX would run from U.S. Route 23 in Pound to Interstates 64 and 77 in West Virginia, improving connectivity between Southwest Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Roughly 50 miles of the CFX would run through Virginia. As of September, the miles not overlapping the Corridor Q project remained unfunded.

Jonathan Belcher, Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority’s executive director and Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority’s executive director and general counsel, said in a statement: “The opening of this section further extends the Coalfields Expressway in Virginia and greatly enhances the transportation access, quality of life and economic development of this entire area. Southwest Virginia and Buchanan County are open for business, and this road is helping to pave the way for a brighter future for the coalfield region.”

The ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the approximately $200 million Poplar Creek Phase A, which had opened to traffic. The limited-access, four-lane highway runs from the Southern Gap redevelopment site on Southern Gap Road at the east end of Route 460/121 to Route 604, or Poplar Creek Road.

The remaining 2.07-mile portion of Corridor Q is under construction and scheduled to open in late 2027. When complete, the 127.5-mile Corridor Q will run from the Virginia-Kentucky state line to I-81 near Christiansburg.

Corridor Q, “which has been decades in the making,” Virginia Transportation Secretary W. Sheppard Miller III said in a statement, “will ensure a stronger connection between Virginia and Kentucky, support future economic development and enhance the quality of life for residents of this beautiful region of the commonwealth.”