West Virginia Route 97 is an east–west

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the U.S. state of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. The western terminus of the route is at

U.S. Route 52 U.S. Route 52 (US 52) is a major United States highway in the central United States that extends from the northern to southeastern region of the United States. Contrary to most other even-numbered U.S. Highways, US 52 primarily follows ...

and

West Virginia Route 80 West Virginia Route 80 is a north–south state highway in southern West Virginia. The southern terminus of the route is at West Virginia Route 83 in Bradshaw. The northern terminus is at West Virginia Route 10 south of Man A man is ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. The eastern terminus is at exit 42 of the

West Virginia Turnpike West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

( Interstate 64 and

Interstate 77 Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It traverses diverse terrain, from the mountainous state of West Virginia to the rolling farmlands of North Carolina and Ohio. It largely supplants the ...

) in Mabscott. West Virginia Route 16, which runs

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

with WV 97 between

Sophia Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: *Sophia (wisdom) *Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Places *Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu *Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana *Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...

and Mabscott, continues north into Beckley on

Robert C. Byrd Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician and musician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A ...

Drive, the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

of both WV 16 and WV 97.

Major intersections

History

State Route 97 connects U.S. Highway 52 in the western end of Wyoming County with the county seat of Pineville and goes on to State Route 54 in Maben. Following the linkage of Interstate 64 to the West Virginia Turnpike south of Beckley, the state continued State Route 97 signage across existing State Route 54 to State Route 16 in

and on to the junction with the Turnpike's newly constructed South Valley Drive (now renamed

Drive) exit number 42. As a main thoroughfare in Wyoming County, Route 97 serves the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

industry and its workers, and the heavy truck traffic following brought many accidents and made maintenance nearly impossible. The last 20 years have brought improvements and widening to the road, and it could soon lose much traffic to the

Coalfields Expressway U.S. Route 121 (US 121) is a proposed U.S. highway designated as the Coalfields Expressway, a four-lane highway stretching from Beckley, West Virginia, to Pound, Virginia, approximately in length. It is designed to connect Interstate ...

, a highway that will link the Turnpike to Pineville, Welch, and

Buchanan County, Virginia Buchanan County () is a United States county in far western Virginia, the only county in the state to border both West Virginia and Kentucky. The county is part of the Southwest Virginia region and lies in the rugged Appalachian Plateau porti ...

References

{{commonscat, West Virginia Route 97 097 Transportation in Raleigh County, West Virginia Transportation in Wyoming County, West Virginia

Major intersections

History

See also

References