Tag: Highway Construction

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.”

Camera Bill For Work Zones Will Stop Speeders, Save Lives

In West Virginia, the numbers show that too many drivers speed through active work zones, negligently causing deaths and injuries. One proposed bill uses technology to save highway workers’ lives.

Del. Josh Booth, R-Wayne, has a day job as a highway construction worker. So, Booth has both a public and personal interest in sponsoring House Bill 4595.

“I’ve been struck by a car twice, once in Huntington, once in Institute,” Booth said. “There have been 15 fatalities in West Virginia work zones over the past five years and 500 accidents with injuries.”

Booth said excessive speed is the leading cause of worker injuries and death. HB 4595 would set up a camera-assisted enforcement system on multi-lane, high-speed highways.

The system would operate only where workers are present. The camera would only capture rear license plates. Drivers will become informed of the camera systems and work zone safety through a public education awareness campaign, increased signage in construction areas, and notice of work zone camera placement on the WV 511 website.

Booth explained that the West Virginia border states of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia have an identical camera work zone speed system up and running. He says it works, but things change when drivers cross that border into the mountain state.

“You bet it does,” Booth said. “They start speeding because they know there’s no monitoring, they know there’s no oversight.”

Mike Clowser, the executive director for the Contractors Association of West Virginia explains that violators caught by camera will first be warned if traveling more than 10 MPH over the speed limit. Clowser said the second violation is a $75 fine and the third violation, a $150 fine.

“This isn’t a ‘gotcha’ plan. Drivers will see signs that say, cameras, cameras, cameras, warning them to slow down.” Clowser said.

Both men said they have seen vehicles go through active construction sites at up to 120 MPH. This isn’t the Daytona 500, it’s highway improvement work that needs to be safe.

Public Private Partnerships Could Speed Up Corridor H Construction

An economic impact study presented to lawmakers says the state would see a more than $1 billion increase in its economy if Corridor H was completed by 2020 instead of its current 2036 end date. Supporters of the accelerated plan say the money to complete the federally funded roadway is already available.

“I always get this question, well how are you going to pay for it? Well, you folks were able to give us another tool last year that we can now use to accelerate the completion of that highway,” said Steven Foster, president of the Corridor H Authority. “That is the concept of public private partnerships.”

Foster presented the implications of the study released last month to lawmakers during interim meetings at the Capitol.

Today, the construction of the corridor is 100 percent funded by the federal government at a rate of $40 million a year.

By utilizing the public private partnership model, Foster said the Authority would bid out a contract to design, construct and finance the additional miles of highway needed. With private funds, the state could build 10 miles of highway over the next four years and collect the federal dollars over the next 10 years to pay it back.

“(It’s) like buying a house. Very few people have the opportunity to save up all the money it’s going to take to buy their house. They usually have a mortgage and that’s basically what this does,” Foster told the committee.

“It allows you to go ahead and build the highway and let the contractor finance it and be able to put it in place over 10 years of pay back as opposed to the four years that it’s going to take to build it.”

Foster assured legislators through the model the private entity has no ownership claim to the roadway they finance for the state.

Corridor H will be 75 percent complete by next year.
 

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