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Nucor will rely mainly on rail and river to bring in scrap steel as a raw material and to ship its finished steel to its customers, but highway access remains important. People still need to commute to work, and if the expected spinoff businesses locate in Mason County near the mill, they will need a safe highway.

Improving W.Va. 2 from the Merritts Creek connector to Point Pleasant wonòòò½ÊÓƵ™t be easy or inexpensive. Residential and commercial development crowd along the road in some places. At Glenwood in the far southern end of Mason County, the road is at its lowest point along the Ohio River. Glenwood is the first place where W.Va. 2 is closed when the river floods, and there is little or no room at Glenwood to build around the low spot.

Parts of W.Va. 2 can be improved easily, but others would take years of planning and reconstruction. If the road must be rerouted around places such as Glenwood, we could be talking a decade or more unless the project is fast-tracked.

It could come down to a choice that Cabell County officials and residents must make. The KYOVA Interstate Planning Commission is nearing completion of its initial round of planning work for a new Ohio River Bridge in the Cox Landing area that would connect W.Va. 2 with Ohio 7 and complete the Tri-State outer belt project. The bridge likely would cost $150 million or more including further planning and engineering studies, right-of-way acquisition and other matters that must be dealt with before construction could begin. If money is limited and local residents must choose, would they take the bridge and an inadequate W.Va. 2, or an upgraded W.Va. 2 and no bridge?

W.Va. 2 has been neglected for years. Itòòò½ÊÓƵ™s gotten a lot of talk, but not much else. Itòòò½ÊÓƵ™s had some improvements north of Lesage, but other than that, itòòò½ÊÓƵ™s still a narrow two-lane road that gets a lot of traffic and is about to get a lot more.

Until people higher up the political food chain than county commissioners recognize the need for a better W.Va. 2, little will be done. òòò½ÊÓƵ the old saying goes, when everything is said and done, more is usually said than done. Thatòòò½ÊÓƵ™s so true where W.Va. 2 is concerned.