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The Roads Ahead: West Virginia Division of Highways holds open house to discuss projects

West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways District 3 Manager Michael C. Daley spoke at an open house event Thursday where he provided information about various projects going on in the district which includes Wood, Wirt, Jackson, Roane, Ritchie, Calhoun and Pleasants counties. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Local officials and others got to talk about local road projects and the workings of the state highway division during an open house event Thursday.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways District 3 held an open house at the District office at 624 Depot St. in Parkersburg where local officials and the public could get some information about road projects going on throughout the district which covers Wood, Wirt, Jackson, Roane, Ritchie, Calhoun and Pleasants counties.

“We have a lot of projects on the table we need to do,” said District 3 Manager Michael C. Daley. “We have meetings with our people every day.

“If an issue comes up, we resolve it. We take care of the problem. It never stops.”

There are 4,912 miles of roads in the district. District 3 had a $41,623,000 budget for 2024-25 of which over $16.7 million goes towards labor, over $7.4 million for equipment and over $17.5 million for materials.

Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp asked questions Thursday during an open house event at the West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways District 3 office in Parkersburg about the 12th Street bridge in Vienna that is slated to have some rehabilitation work done, but may need to be replaced to accommodate needed sewerline updates as well as increased traffic as the road will be connected to the new WVUP Innovation and Technology Center, a new elementary school and other slated development. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The district has a core maintenance plan which covers patching, mowing, ditching/pipe replacement, stone stabilization and snow removal and ice control (SRIC) which consists of 70% of the planned budget for maintenance every year, Daley said.

They plan out and schedule work that needs to be done, based on input from local officials and others.

“We do these plans weekly, monthly and yearly,” Daley said. “Those plans are set up geographically to minimize the amount of jumping around with the labor and equipment.

“We have to adjust things if we get a storm. We have to adjust the plans to be able to go out and get the roads open up, get culverts opened up and get things cleaned up.”

They can’t always guarantee a completion time, but there is a plan to be there by around a certain point.

“We have to do it by priority,” Daley said. “If it’s something that is going to cause flooding to someone’s house or other damage, we have to get on that.”

They do that through a process of Safety With Action Today (SWAT) where they respond to concerns about when it can be fixed or where it is in their schedule to be fixed so the people have some kind of answer. Other factors can include equipment availability.

Costs are going up on materials to repair as well as for treating roads. Daley said the DOH is phasing out the use of cinders because they are hard to acquire and they can cause additional problems for roads.

Daley ran through a number of projects that have happened or are happening around the district.

In Wood County:

* Bridges under construction include the USMC PFC D Marshall Memorial Bridge along W.Va. Route 14 ($5.4 million) and 1-77, US 50 I/C North & South ($13.5 million)

* Slip projects planned include along Progress Ridge Road ($100,000) and W.Va. Route 14 from Slate to the Wirt County line ($200,000).

* Resurfacing project under construction includes Pettyville Road ($437,920)

*Reconstruction projects under construction include W.Va. Route 2 from Parkersburg to St. Mary’s Road ($27.5 million).

* Resurfacing projects planned include Jerry’s Run ($118,795).

Officials representing Jackson County asked questions about roads around the new Timet site. They also talked about a spot where accidents are regularly occurring when people are exiting I-77 at the Silverton exit where people aren’t stopping for stop signs and get into accidents. They asked if rumble strips could be put in to try to slow cars down.

They also brought up concerns about large trucks going down smaller roads that aren’t big enough to accommodate these trucks. In many cases, officials said the driver is following the instructions from a GPS program or they are on a call with someone guiding them with a GPS program on their phone.

They have tried to put up signs on roads that can’t accommodate these big trucks. In a number of cases they have gotten stuck and have to be towed out. There was talk about contacting trucking companies directly to warn them away from going down these roads.

Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp talked about getting three bridges in the city in a program through the highway department to be repaired and redone.

He talked about the 12th Street bridge where the road is planned that will go up and access the new West Virginia University at Parkersburg Innovation and Technology Center on the campus of the former Ohio Valley University.

The Wood County Board of Education is now looking at the same area for the location of a new Vienna Elementary School. Rapp said there will be a new housing development with around 75 new homes.

“Our sewer line will not carry the capacity we need to do that,” Rapp said.

He wants to see if instead of rehabilitating the bridge, he would like to see the WVDOT take it out so others can go in and put larger sewer lines in place to handle the capacity then replace the bridge because of the increased amount and volume of traffic that will be utilizing that bridge.

“If we can get that redone so we can get that deck taken off so we can get in there and replace that sewer line, it is a win,” Rapp said. “We need some help with that one right there. Long term, that is something we need to get done.”

Joe Pack, chief engineer of operations for the DOH, said bridge rehabilitation does not cost as much as replacements.

“We are using federal dollars on this and we have a limit,” he said. “(We) are trying to determine the best way forward.

“It is being looked at and reviewed. It is not being ignored.”

Most of the federal dollars have a time limit where they have to be used in a certain amount of time, Pack said.

Rapp said when the bridges were being considered for rehabilitation work, they did not know WVUP was going to acquire the property or that land was going to be made available for a new elementary school.

“Now all of these things are falling into place,” Rapp said. “Now is the time to be doing all of these things, because if we can all work together on this we can improve all of the infrastructure that will go up through there.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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