Department of Transportation Story Archives - Page 3 of 6

Roads To Prosperity Program Marks Five Years Of Road, Infrastructure Projects

Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the launch of the state’s Roads to Prosperity program.

The state passed the program at Gov. Jim Justice’s urging in 2017, selling $1.6 billion in bonds to upgrade state infrastructure. Since then, the program has funded more than 1,000 projects of varying scale. These projects have mostly focused on improving state roads, with the state Department of Transportation (DOT) heading most of them.

“I think it’s exceeded everybody’s expectations,” Commissioner of Highways Jimmy Wriston said. “We went from a more than $500 million shortfall in 2017 to a $1.2 billion surplus just this past year. Plus, we also have a great benefit of counteracting the decades and decades of underinvestment in our roadways.”

Wriston said the program is a massive undertaking, citing that nearly 94 percent of all roads are maintained by the state.

Larger projects include the Coalfields Expressway, which connects southern West Virginia to western Virginia, a six-lane widening of the West Virginia Turnpike around Beckley and Corridor H connecting Grant, Tucker and Hardy counties to northwestern Virginia.

Bridge projects, including the Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge on Interstate 64 and reconstruction of multiple bridges along Interstate 70, have been managed as well.

Wriston said the tackling of larger projects also gave the DOT room to handle smaller, secondary roads through the Secondary Roads Maintenance Initiative.

“There’s a lot of trickle down there, not just with the construction of the road projects, but the folks that supply the road materials, the folks that actually work out there and bought slushies and lunches, eating at restaurants while they’re working. It’s all been working together,” Wriston said.

The DOT website has an estimated statistic of 48,000 jobs created as a result of the project.

Pedestrian Safety Campaign Launched At Marshall University

The program, called Heads Up Herd, reminds students and pedestrians about ways to stay safe around busy traffic. These include basic tips like looking away from cell phones while crossing, using crosswalks and making eye contact with drivers.

Marshall University is introducing a new pedestrian safety campaign in response to a fatal collision on campus last fall.

As part of the program, professors are provided with pedestrian safety PowerPoints as class material and students are given reflective, iron-on patches for their backpacks.

“In my whole career here, the biggest complaint I got was how our students and community cross the streets. So that’s what we’re working on,” said Marshall Director of Public Safety Jim Terry.

The program exists as a response to a fatal accident in which an oncoming vehicle struck and killed a Marshall University student on campus. The state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) is set to begin the second phase of a traffic safety audit next month.

“We average a student a year hit by vehicles. And it’s dangerous,” Terry said. “And 95 percent of the time, or higher, it’s the pedestrian’s fault.”

Last month, the school also partnered with the city of Huntington and the DOT to help make the campus safer for pedestrians. One of the proposals included speed limit reductions from 35 mph to 25 mph on 3rd and 5th Avenues. A new crosswalk on 20th Street outside the school’s rec center also provides safe passage from the main parking lot.

Inflation Makes State’s Highway Construction More Expensive

Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, Jimmy Wriston, told the Joint Committee on Government and Finance that inflation is making highway construction more expensive in the Mountain State.

At an interim meeting of the Joint Committee on Government and Finance on July 26, West Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston said the department’s contracts for current projects have clauses to adjust for rising inflation. While it relieves some of the added costs for contractors, it raises the project fee for the department.

“If all of our projects today were completed, and I had to calculate that asphalt and fuel adjustment and pay that today, it would exceed 14 million dollars,” said Wriston.

Supply chain shortages are also making it harder for the department to buy equipment and vehicles.

“The Division of Highways runs on its trucks,” Wriston said. “That’s a particular concern to us.”

Wriston suggested the state should develop a policy for upcoming projects under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to include clauses that compensate contractors to offset added expenses.

“We’re always anxious to be told what we can do to lower barriers to activation on things,” Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said. “So if you’re trying to adjust or make mid-course corrections on anything that we can do to be helpful on, we’d certainly appreciate knowing that.”

Clarksburg And Lewisburg Airports May Have New Carrier

Airports in Clarksburg and Lewisburg may have found a replacement carrier in anticipation of SkyWest Airlines’ departure.

Airports in Clarksburg and Lewisburg may have found a replacement carrier in anticipation of SkyWest Airlines’ departure. The budget airline asked to end service in March.

The directors for North Central Regional Airport in Clarksburg and Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg have identified Contour Airlines as their preferred carrier moving forward.

In March, the Department of Transportation blocked SkyWest Airlines from ending service to 29 airports across the country including Clarksburg and Lewisburg.

In documents filed with the Department of Transportation (DOT) at the end of June, both airport authorities requested a waiver to award their Essential Air Service (EAS) contract to the Tennessee based airline, which is affiliated with American Airlines.

According to DOT, the EAS program was put into place to guarantee that small communities that were served by certificated air carriers before airline deregulation can maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service.

As an Essential Air Service carrier, Contour would connect the regional airports to the National Air Transportation System via the American Airlines hub in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Contour currently offers service to 10 other EAS cities, including Parkersburg and Beckley.

Both airports declined proposals from Boutique Air and Southern Airways Express. Those airlines only offer single-engine service, and that would require the airports to waive their rights to twin engine service.

A proposal from Team Tundra was rejected by both airports as incomplete.

Data Indicates Increase In W.Va. Roadway Deaths

Highway deaths increased by 10 percent nationwide in 2021 compared to a year earlier. Preliminary data shows roadway fatalities in West Virginia are following a similar trend.

Data from the West Virginia Department of Transportation shows highway fatalities in West Virginia increased by five percent in 2021. Though the statistic is considered raw data until confirmed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this fall, it indicates an increase in roadway deaths that is consistent with the rest of the country.

In an email to WVPB, West Virginia Department of Transportation director Jennifer Dooley says the biggest increase in fatalities involved collisions with pedestrians. The department says it is planning on focusing resources to prevent further crashes with its Strategic Highway Safety Plan over the next five years.

Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP) representative Aimee Cantrell says behavioral trends during COVID-19 may explain this increase. Speeding incidents rose during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, when there was a lower amount of traffic.

“That sometimes gives people this sense that it’s okay to drive distracted or to drive faster than the posted speed limit, or a couple of other things that really are never true,” Cantrell said.

Cantrell reminds drivers to remember the basics of driving and practice safety measures to either prevent or lessen the impact of a crash. These measures include proper seat belt usage, no cell phone usage while driving, and remaining parked and off the road while putting information into a GPS.

Though the number has increased within the past year, West Virginia has seen a downward trend in fatalities over the past decade. Highway deaths have decreased by more than 15 percent since 2011. Cantrell credits this trend to West Virginia’s seat belt law, which was made a primary offense in 2013.

“We have consistently been trending downward in those fatalities, which is a great thing,” Cantrell said. “It is our mission and goal to decrease injuries and fatalities due to crashes. Our ultimate target is zero deaths on our roads, so that takes the cooperation of all drivers and road users.”

The GHSP is currently working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Click It or Ticket” campaign this Memorial Day season to remind drivers to wear their seatbelts.

Bridge Rehabilitation And Completing Corridors Are W.Va. Transportation Priorities

Bridge rehabilitation, unfinished corridors and electric charging stations highlight how the West Virginia Department of Transportation plans to use some of the federal infrastructure funds.

Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston explained to the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on Department of Transportation Accountability how the state will spend some of the $3 billion coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act at a legislative interim meeting Sunday.

Wriston said more than $45 million will help set up electric car charging stations along the interstates. He said this could be a public/private partnership project.

Wriston also allotted $548 million for bridge rehabilitation. Funding includes both state and non-state owned bridges. Wriston said while state-owned bridge rehabilitation funding designates an 80-20 percent federal/state split, non-state owned bridge projects will be 100 percent funded by federal dollars.

“We think we can really leverage that and make a big difference for a lot of municipalities,” Wriston said. “Especially since they won’t have to come up with a match to replace, repair or rehabilitate some of these structures.”

Wriston said $200 million will be dedicated to finishing the Corridor H project, a four lane highway that runs from Weston to the Virginia line, connecting with I-81.

“I think it’s safe to say regarding the end of construction on Corridor H, that the end is in sight,” Wriston said.

Wriston said other road building priorities include the King Coal Highway, a 95-mile stretch through McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Wyoming, and Wayne counties, and the Coalfields Expressway, a multi-lane highway connecting the West Virginia Turnpike at Beckley with U.S. 23 at Slate, Va.

Wrtiston told commission members that purchasing construction equipment looms as one of the Department of Transportation’s biggest challenges. He said inflation and supply chain issues have stymied availability. For example, Wriston said an order for 120 new trucks is not expected to be delivered until August, 2023. He worries that challenges in obtaining new equipment and parts may get worse before they get better.

“We will slide back as a department if something doesn’t change soon.” Wriston said.