Found a map of the highway project. It was held up last December for "environmental" reasons, which in this case amount to sentiment to preserve an iconic lava field, as see map comparison below. I think the elves are late recruits, but very powerful ones in the area of sentiment.
I saw some "elven churches" with Google search, and they seem to be mostly rock formations, not involving lava, and I'm hard put to see a candidate for this in the Google Earth image. Nevertheless, I'm a sentimental guy, and who needs that stupid road?
