“This is so essential and so important to this region,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R- W.Va., said at the beginning of the announcement event. “I just want to say congratulations. It’s not going to be easy, but I can’t wait until we can stop talking about how we need to connect us all, you know. Because that will mean that we’re all connected.”

Woodlands Development Group and its project partners will oversee installation of the Route 33 Broadband Initiative, a 58-mile fiber network through some of the most remote parts of the region. The route will follow State Route 33 and State Route 32 from Elkins to Harman and then to Davis.

The $4 million project, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the U.S. Economic Development Administration, will be done in partnership with Generation WV, Citynet, Thrasher Engineering and the Benedum Foundation.

Officials anticipate the project will be completed by October 2025.

Manchin

The Friday morning meeting was held inside the renovated Tygart Hotel in downtown Elkins, where a ribbon cutting was held later in the day.

“I can’t tell you what a proud moment this is,” said Gayle Manchin, Federal Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. “To see what has been accomplished. I mean, I saw this building before. And to think that what you have done is preserve history in so many ways, and yet you’re getting people the finest amenities.”

Manchin said tourists love to visit this region, “but they want the amenities. They would not want to come to a hotel that did not have running water, or heat, or air conditioning. They want the amenities, but they also want the beauty and the history of the land around them. That also goes for broadband.”

She added that, despite building highways across West Virginia, “during COVID, we realized just how still isolated we are. Because we sent children home from school to learn, and they couldn’t, because they had no Wi-Fi. There was no telehealth. There was no working from home for adults.

“This has been a very intense project. A very expensive project. Just like building highways through the mountains, it’s not easy,” Manchin said. “But we must continue to do it. I’m so thrilled with this project.”

Officials estimate that more than 40 businesses will subscribe to improved broadband service as an outcome of the project.