Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., questioned a Federal Highway Administration this week about a federal decision that she says has set back completion of the Corridor H highway by a year.

During a Senate hearing Wednesday, Capito, Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, asked FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt about the re-designation of a segment of the Corridor H construction project.

“I want to ask you a specific West Virginia question to begin, and this is on Corridor H,” Capito said. “Corridor H, which is the state of West Virginia’s highest priority highway project. A section of construction was delayed another year when FHWA declared the section from Wardensville to the Virginia state line a ‘major project,’ requiring additional documentation.”

The section of Corridor H that has been re-designated is the segment running from Wardensville to the Virginia state line.

“Given the $500 million statutory threshold for ‘major project,’ why did the FHWA declare this project, estimated at $475 million, a ‘major project?’ Why did you go beyond the scope of the $500 million threshold?” Capito asked.

Bhatt replied, “I specifically asked our division, ‘Why was this designated as a major project?’ and the answer was given that the construction costs estimate had gone to $475 million, with all the preconstruction activities, design, right-of-way, others, they felt that it would go over the $500 million threshold, and it is not the first time that we have used proximity to $500 million as a reason for re-designation. Illinois had another project that that did happen on.”

“The threshold is all costs of the project, so there’s your construction costs, there’s design, utility relocation, right-of-way that you would acquire as part of that,” Bhatt said. “So that’s where the $500 million is. A particularly complex or complicated project is another threshold that they can apply, but what I would also say is that, I don’t know about it adding another year, but what it does allow us to do is to provide cost and schedule assistance for West Virginia, so I have directed our division staff to make sure that they are providing every possible piece of assistance to West Virginia on this project.”

Bhatt said he would like to visit the site with Capito in the near future.