With construction beginning on April 19, the West Virginia Route 93 Scherr connector to the upcoming Corridor H highway is currently in full swing, with contractors from Kanawha Stone of Nitro, W.Va. working 11 hour days, says Jon Burns, acting area engineer of the West Virginia Division of Highways in Burlington.
“They’re right on schedule,” said Burns, who has been studying Corridor H construction for eight years. 
Burns explained that the Route 93 Scherr Connector Project will connect State Route 93 into Corridor H by a six-tenths of a mile road to the main corridor. Another 1.42 miles of the main line — the Corridor H portion of the highway — will also be constructed.
“Right now, they have over half of the connector almost excavated and completed,” said Burns.
Estimated time of completion is summer 2010.
“We pretty much have all 1.4 miles of main line to work on,” said Burns. “This is a grade and drain project. There will be no paving. That will be a separate project.”
The Route 93 Connector Project to Corridor H is  being funded through combined monies from federal and state governments.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration has reserved $5.8 million for the project, while the West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways has awarded $1.4 million.
Burns said the connector at Patterson’s Creek Road back to Moorefield — a ten mile long stretch of highway — will soon be paved.
The contractor currently working on this segment of the project is Groundbreakers, from Clarksburg, W.Va.
“We just got a contract to have all that paved,” said Burns. “That should be completed in the summer of 2010.”
Another project includes sets of two large bridges — a thousand feet in length — to be constructed at the quarry at Scherr and is currently in its initial stages with the West Virginia Department of Transportation.
Burns said one of the bridges will pass right by the scale house in Scherr.
“This will be all the main line that leads to Corridor H,” said Burns, who said this project’s completion date is set for October of 2010.
There is one more project to get underway to connect Scherr to Moorefield through Corridor H, said Burns, who didn’t have many details because this last piece of the construction puzzle is still in its design stages.
To learn more about the Corridor H project, log onto http://www.wvcorridorh.com.