MASON COUNTY, W.Va. — Leaders in both Mason and Cabell counties are asking new state Transportation Secretary Rumbaugh for an expansion to state Route 2 as new businesses come to the area.

Ground was broken in the fall of 2023 for the new, $3 billion Nucor Corp. steel plant in Apple Grove, which will serve as a state-of-the-art sheet steel mill. Last week, Governor Patrick Morrisey announced that two more major companies would head up their operations in Mason County. Fidelis and Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) will be joining together for the development of what will be known as the B&W BrightLoop facility, just north of Point Pleasant. The facility will be an on-site AI data campus.

While there is excitement for the future of the county, Mason County Commissioner Rick Handley says these facilities will require a better and much larger road for trucks and commuters than what the two-lane Route 2 offers.

Rick Handley

“We’re going to need really, really up to date roads,” Handley said. “I’m hoping by having these two grand slam companies coming to our county, the state, the federal government will really help us out in getting a four-lane (road) to get the traffic flowing through those two areas.”

Handley says the area near the Nucor site is already busy with the full construction effort.

“If you’ve ever been down there at about 7:30 in the morning or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, you’d know what I’m talking about. It’s a great problem to have, but we’re going to really need a four-lane that’s going to take people from Cabell County through Mason County and all the way up even into Jackson County maybe,” Handley said.

Nucor will create around 900 permanent jobs and Handley estimates between 800 and 1,000 new employees coming from Fidelis and B&W. In addition, the new BrightLoop facility will be converting the state’s coal, natural gas, and biofuels into hydrogen. Hundley says Route 2 needs expanded soon, as these new operations are far too important to sit around and wait.

“We hope that the governor and we hope our United States senators and representatives will take a look at this and give us high priority,” Hundley said. “We don’t want to wait until they are built to have something done.”

“I just hope that they take a look at that and see that this is a priority to the state of West Virginia,” Hundley said.