page_title: U.S. Route 52 in West Virginia
section_title: Tolsia Highway
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 52 in West Virginia / History / Tolsia Highway
caption_attribution_description: English: A 2005 photograph of US 52 and WV 75 ending at an interchange stub south of en:Kenova, West Virginia.
context_page_description: U.S. Route 52 skirts the western fringes of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It runs from the Virginia state line near Bluefield, where it is concurrent with Interstate 77, in a general northwest and north direction to I-64 at Kenova. There it turns east, overlapping I-64 for five miles before splitting off onto the West Huntington Expressway into Ohio via the West Huntington Bridge. Despite having an even number, US 52 is signed north–south in West Virginia. In some other states along its route, it is signed east-west. The West Virginia segment is signed such that US 52 north corresponds to the general westward direction of the highway, and vice versa. For a while, US 52 parallels US 23, which is on the other side of the Big Sandy River in Kentucky. This continues into Ohio, where US 52 travels on the Ohio side of the Ohio River while US 23 travels on the Kentucky side.
  Most of the route is being upgraded to a high-speed four-lane divided highway, but not to interstate standards. It has been designated as part of the I-73 and I-74 corridors.
context_section_description: The Tolsia Highway is defined as running from I-64 at Kenova to Corridor G (US 119) north of Williamson. The name Tolsia takes the names from the first initials of the Tug, Ohio, Levisa, and Sandy Improvement Association. US 52 originally took the path of WV 152, approximately 10 miles (16 km) east of the current alignment. In the mid-1960s, state funding was secured to upgrade most of County Route 1 (CR 1), which ran along the Big Sandy River and Tug Fork River. The upgraded CR 1 and CR 29 was renumbered as US 52 in 1979.
  Portions of the 66-mile (106 km) highway have been upgraded to four lanes. In 1998, US 52 south of the I-64 interchange in Kenova was upgraded to four-lane highway standards to the access road for Tri-State Airport. In that same year, the Prichard bypass was opened to traffic with one interchange and one at-grade intersection. This four-mile (6.4 km) bypass includes very large rock cuts and a long and winding grade down a hill. In 2001, the four-lane highway was extended southward approximately two miles (3.2 km) to a stub interchange with WV 75. Also in that year, the four-lane highway near Prichard was extended northward for one-mile (1.6 km), removing some grades and curves along US 52. The extension was completed in 2002 at a cost of $9.6 million.
  In 2001, the Crum segment of the Tolsia Highway opened to traffic. The highway begins just north of Crum at an incomplete diamond interchange and heads eastward towards CR 2. It has at-grade intersections with CR 52-47 and CR 52-31 along with a side road at the eastern terminus that takes traffic to CR 2. There are stubs for future bridges and ramps. Signage along this segment is minimal, with only a handful of arrows to designate the route. While the highway was built to four-lane standards, it is only striped for two.
  In late 2002, Senator Robert C. Byrd received $20 million in funds to jump-start construction on the northern half of the Tolsia Highway. The money would be used to speed up construction on the 10-mile (16 km) link between Huntington and Prichard, serving several industrial parks and relieving two-lane US 52 of coal-truck congestion.
  In 2003, survey and design of five miles (8.0 km) of four-lane US 52 upgrades from Prichard north to Cyrus were completed. Plans include an interchange and five bridge structures.
caption: A 2005 photograph of US 52 and WV 75 ending at an interchange stub south of Kenova, West Virginia.
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