Traffic has shifted onto the recently constructed lanes of West Virginia 2 north of Parkersburg, where the highway is being expanded to five lanes from Valley Mills to West Virginia 31. Cost is more than $27 million. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

PARKERSBURG — A project several years in the making in Wood County is halfway done, according to officials with the West Virginia Division of Highways.

Widening of West Virginia 2 north of Parkersburg was financed through the Roads to Prosperity amendment approved by voters in 2017. The amendment authorized about $2.8 billion in bonds for road construction.

The $27.46 million W.Va. 2 project was awarded to Mountaineer Contractors Inc. in November 2021.

“The W.Va. 2 widening project, a Roads to Prosperity project, is nearing the halfway mark,” said Justin Smith, WVDOH District 3 engineer. “The upcoming work this year will involve grading, drainage and utility work on the existing portion of roadway now that traffic has been relocated to the newly constructed section.”

The widening project is from Valley Mills Road to West Virginia 31. The road, heavily traveled by large trucks, will be widened from two lanes to five.

Widening W.Va. 2 between Valley Mills and W.Va. 31 is the only widening contract on the road in highways division District 3, according to Chuck McPeek, District 3 construction engineer. Realignment of the intersection of W.Va. 2 and W.Va. 31 where a signal will be installed also is in the project, he said.

Most of the excavation, the first part of the drainage, additional paving and guardrails were completed last year. Project completion is scheduled in the summer of 2025.

Last fall, Highways Secretary Jimmie Wriston predicted the project would be done in November 2024. Progress slowed over the relocation of utility lines because contractors were on numerous other highway construction projects, Wriston said.

The Wood County project is part of the ongoing plan to upgrade all of W.Va. 2 from Parkersburg to Chester in the northern panhandle.

The West Virginia Route 2-I-68 Authority, created by the Legislature in 1997, remains committed to the expansion of the highway, Executive Director Bob Miller said. Miller is a former Marshall County commissioner where the state is expanding 11 miles of W.Va. 2 at a cost of about $200 million.

W.Va. 2 from Chester to Parkersburg was the focus of the Legislature in the creation of the authority, Miller said. The road follows the Ohio River from Parkersburg to Huntington, but was not so much in the picture, he said.

Recent economic developments may impact decisions about the highway, not the least of which is the $3.1 billion Nucor Steel plant on W.Va. 2 in Apple Grove south of Point Pleasants in Mason County, Miller said. Upgrades are underway to the road near the plant, he said.

“What disappointed me was how horrible that section of Route 2 was in front of the plant,” Miller said.

Expansion of the road is an important part of opening the region and the state to more economic development, Miller said.

Extending Interstate 68 to the Ohio River brings it into an area where the Marcellus shale reserves are found and a Washington Bottom site proposed for a multibillion-dollar ethane cracker was probably chosen for its proximity to U.S. 50, Ohio 7 and other four-lane roads in Wood and Washington counties, he said.

The financial aspect of expanding W.Va. 2 from Huntington to Chester cannot be overlooked, Miller said. The price tag would be enormous, in the billions of dollars, as just 11 miles in Marshall County was $200 million, he said.

Legislators are supportive, but perhaps not in doing the entire road at one time, he said.

“I haven’t heard that, but there is the attitude that they want to improve the road,” Miller said.

Among other impactful projects in Wood County, the DOH is in the right-of-way process for widening West Virginia 14 south from Blizzard Drive to Rayon Drive. The project is funded, but not ready for bid, Smith said.

The roundabout on W.Va. 14 in south Parkersburg is scheduled to go to construction in late fall, Smith said. At a cost of about $17 million, the roundabout will be about a half-mile long in the area of 21st Avenue, 26th Avenue, Broadway Avenue and Blizzard Drive.

Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.