The Roads and Rails of Summers County, WV /

I-64

Highway	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
I-64	Raleigh County line near Sandstone	Greenbrier County line near Lawn	15

Overview

Interstate 64 runs from Wentzville, Missouri to Chesapeake, Virginia. Much of the highway serves as a de facto replacement for US 60, an earlier highway connecting many of the same locations. Together with I-77, they form the sole controlled-access transportation links in southern West Virginia.

I-64's Summers sojurn is a relatively minor footnote in the road's 1.5 megametre journey. The highway enters the county at the New River Gorge, crossing the Mary Draper Ingles Bridge...and the foot of a 450-metre eastward drop down Sandstone Mountain in Raleigh County severe enough to warrant two runaway truck ramps! It then proceeds through the Lick Creek, Mill Creek, and Fisher Creek valleys, interfacing WV 20 with two exits and slowly regaining much of its elevation. It enters Greenbrier County at Lawn (yes, that's a real place name), 15 kilometres east and slightly north of where it started.

The area this highway crosses is sparsely populated, and isolated from Hinton and most of the county's tourist attractions. However it does feature the National Park Service's Sandstone Visitor Center, located by its westernmost exit with WV 20.

History

I-64 was the first Interstate highway in West Virginia, with its premiere segment opening in Cabell County in 1960. Its construction, however, was dogged by controversy and protracted over 28 years. In Charleston, the highway was intentionally routed through the city's predominently-Black Triangle District, displacing minority residents. East of the state's capital, I-64 was expected to run parallel to US 60, decimating Hawks Nest in Fayette County and other ecologically sensitive locations.

Although US 60 had bypassed the locale years earlier, fate and circumstance convened to give Summers County an Interstate. In 1969, Governor Arch Moore announced that he would "study" the routing of I-64. Five years later it was announced that I-64 would bear away from US 60 in Greenbrier County, follow a southerly course to Beckley, then follow a concurrency with the West Virginia Turnpike to reach Charleston. It was an expedient solution, devised to minimize costs and environmental impact. In the meantime, construction had ground to a halt. A decade would pass before it resumed.

By 1987 the political and logistical hurdles had been cleared, and construction began in earnest to bridge the gap in I-64 between Sam Black Church and Beckley. Interstate 64 opened to traffic in Summers County on 15 July 1988. No adjustments or realignments have been made to the route since.

Fractional spur roads

Interstate highways are controlled-access expressways by definition, and have no intersections. Ergo, I-64 has no fractional spur roads.

presents

The Roads and Rails of Summers County, WV /

I-64

Overview

History

Fractional spur roads

Links