The two miners agreed on Thursday to join the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) in advancing the project.

"We believe that the partnership with Alpha and Pioneer will help us bring down some of the cost estimates," Virginia's transportation secretary Pierce Homer said.

Alpha's acquisition of the Nicewonder Coal Group in October included the acquisition of a road construction and coal recovery business that is currently working on an 11-mile segment of the 90-mile King Coal Highway in southern West Virginia.

Over the life of the project, Alpha expects to recover about 3 million tonnes of coal for use by electrical utilities, while creating a rough-grade road base for the highway.

Alpha plans to use this road construction and coal recovery business as a template for the project announced on Thursday in Virginia.

The planned Coalfields Expressway will be a new four-lane highway stretching 51 miles from Pound in Wise County, through Dickenson and Buchanan counties. It will link with the West Virginia Coalfields Expressway near Paynesville, West Virginia.

Alpha estimated approximately 31 miles of the planned expressway traverses land where the company controls underlying coal mineral rights.

Under Virginia's Public Private Transportation Act (PPTA), Alpha and Pioneer will work with VDOT on a new comprehensive agreement to reflect the highway being built in conjunction with the development of Alpha and Pioneer coal reserves. In addition, the parties will seek to work with the Federal Highway Administration for the use of federal funds on the project.