Coal pays for the roads, and the check is shrinking

How the coal road money works

The county taxes coal at 1% of gross receipts (0.75% for small mines), gas at 1%, and oil at 0.5%[94]. On top of that, state law lets the coalfield counties levy a separate road improvement tax of up to 1% on coal and gas. Three-fourths of it goes into the county's Coal and Gas Road Improvement Fund and one-fourth goes to the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA), the regional economic development agency[95]. Of the county's share, at least half has to go to roads, a quarter can go to water and sewer where wells and springs have failed, and since 2023 it can also pay for flood-prevention work[96]. A four-member advisory committee and the Board of Supervisors decide each year's split[95].

The county runs its own road system. Created in 1987 under that law, the Buchanan County Road System is one of only three county-run road systems in Virginia. It covers over 700 roads and bridges and more than 220 miles, with its own numbering and policy, all paid for with coal and gas tax money. That's on top of VDOT's 93 miles of primary roads and 462 miles of secondary roads in the county[97]. Private roads can be taken into the county system under the county's road and bridge policy[97], which is why a hollow road can end up maintained by the county rather than by VDOT.

The fund is down about a third in two years

The county's budget listed the Coal Road Fund at $16,842,440 for FY2024-25[98] and $11,482,271 for FY2026-27[99], a drop of about $5.4 million, or 32%. In between, the FY2025-26 Coal Road Plan totaled $14,649,783[100]. The fund rides on the price and volume of coal sold, so this is the met-coal slump from the first edition showing up in county pavement money.

Where last year's money went. The FY2025-26 plan, which the board approved 6 to 1 with Trey Adkins voting no, broke down like this[100]:

• $7.44 million for construction, including $1.23 million for district county road maintenance, $1.76 million for state revenue-sharing matches (mostly $1.75 million toward widening Route 460/121), $1.39 million for VDOT-run projects, $1 million for the Public Service Authority, $870,000 for waterline extensions (Lum Hollow, Mann Branch, and Webb Branch/Bethlehem Church), $800,000 for the Southern Gap High School access road, and $350,000 for bridge repair.
• $2.08 million for the county's own road engineering department and its bridge, waterline, and road construction crews.
• $1.8 million passed through to VCEDA as its 25% share.
• $2.98 million held as emergency money, $2.7 million of it for state or federally declared disasters.
• $350,000 set aside for a future water treatment plant renovation.

For FY2026-27, the board approved the new Coal Haul Road Plan on April 6, 2026 by 5 to 0, with Chairman Tim Hess and David Rose abstaining[101]. That plan keeps adding to a reserve for replacing or renovating the Conaway sewage treatment plant: $350,000 more this year, bringing it past the $3.75 million already saved[101]. The same night, the board sent the PSA $500,000 for the Elk Creek 711 project and $50,000 for Dry Fork from the coal road account, and unanimously adopted VDOT's Secondary Six-Year Plan for FY2027 through FY2032 after a public hearing where nobody from the public spoke[101].

The trucks on the back roads

Heavy trucks are the other side of the coal road story. On April 6 the board unanimously asked VDOT for traffic safety studies to ban through trucks on three secondary routes: 3.15 miles of Route 615 (Hoot Owl Road) between Poplar Creek Road and Business 460, plus 3.78 miles of Route 662 (Robinson Fork Road) and 2.82 miles of Route 620 (Deskins Road)[101]. The Hoot Owl resolution says residents and emergency services agencies complained that through trucks were creating hazards and tearing up the road. The proposed detours are long, 14.86 miles for Hoot Owl and 17.58 miles for Robinson Fork and Deskins, and the Sheriff's Office would enforce any ban[101]. Neither public hearing drew a single comment.

The Coalfields Expressway: what's done, what's funded, what isn't

The Coalfields Expressway (U.S. 121, often called the CFX) is meant to link Interstates 64 and 77 in West Virginia to U.S. 23 in Virginia, with seven miles in Buchanan County overlapping Corridor Q, the U.S. 460 route to Kentucky[102]. About 2.5 miles opened in November 2023 and about 3 more (Poplar Creek Phase A) in October 2025. The last two miles, Poplar Creek Phase B between Poplar Creek Road and Grundy, are under construction and due in late 2027[102]. Drivers near Grundy are on a new traffic pattern with flaggers about 1.1 miles west of the Route 460 and Route 83 intersection[103].

The four-lane gap near the Breaks is now funded. The four-mile Route 460 Connector Phase IIA between Route 609 and Route 80 near the Kentucky line was built in 2023 as two lanes plus truck-climbing lanes, with the right-of-way already bought and graded for four[97]. Its funding came together this year: $3 million in federal earmark money in the FY2026 appropriations law[104], $7 million in FY2027 state money, $1.75 million in county match, and a final $1.6 million mine-land (AMLER) grant to the county's Industrial Development Authority announced Aug. 28[105]. VDOT says design starts soon and construction is aimed at late 2029. When it's done, U.S. 460 will be four lanes from Grundy to Pikeville, Kentucky[105].

Everything else is unfunded. By next year about 14 miles of U.S. 121 and U.S. 460 in Buchanan will be finished, but about 42 more miles of U.S. 121 in Virginia have no money[106]. West Virginia has focused on its Welch-to-Beckley stretch, and the pieces that would connect Virginia to the Welch area aren't in its upcoming transportation program[106]. Future Virginia sections have to compete statewide through VDOT's SMART SCALE scoring[102], which favors traffic volume. A 2023 VDOT count put U.S. 460 at about 8,600 vehicles a day near Grundy but only about 2,000 near the Kentucky line[97]. The expressway authority is drafting a bill to add the CFX to the Appalachian Development Highway System, which would make it eligible for Appalachian Regional Commission money[106], and is also raising money for the Route 744 connector between Route 83 and the expressway at Southern Gap[105]. Del. Morefield and Sen. Travis Hackworth have also sought $7.875 million in FY2028 state money for a Route 121 Rockhouse Road connector and more Phase IIA work[107].