Infrastructure Story Archives - Page 18 of 19 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Morgantown Passes Heavy-Truck Traffic Ban

Morgantown City Council passed an ordinance 6-1 that limits heavy trucks traveling through the city’s downtown area along State Route 7.

The Action

For years residents and businesses have complained about the truck traffic. After a short public hearing and an hour and a half of deliberation, last night’s vote is the first real action to address those concerns.

A similar attempt to limit truck traffic was made in 2006. Morgantown City Council at that time elected to negotiate with the Department of Highways and local industry to find a meaningful solution; however, negotiations failed to remedy the problem.

This effort was lead by a group called Safe Streets Morgantown, which crafted the ordinance.

“The ordinance was specifically written to be easily enforced,” said Evan Hansen is a local downtown business owner and member of the group Safe Streets Morgantown. He spoke during the public hearing that preceded the vote.

“To be clear, this is not an overweight truck ordinance,” Hansen said. “No scales are required because the ordinance is based on the trucks declared gross weight which is written on the registration card.”

The Rule

The proposed ordinance would see trucks weighing 13 tons or more rerouted around the downtown. There’s a list of exceptions to the rule:

Trucks moving merchandise for downtown businesses
Emergency or Military Vehicles
Governmental Vehicles
Solid Waste Disposal Vehicles
Vehicles used for towing
Vehicles on an Established Detour
Vehicles with special permits from the city manager

Questions that held up a vote were mostly those concerning enforcement such as personnel, training, equipment, and signage.
Even though no one showed up to speak against the ordinance, there’s a lot of uncertainty among council members and the city manager about how the ordinance will be received by the state and federal departments of highways as well as companies which might doubt the city’s ability to enforce such an order.

The Debate

Earlier this summer the West Virginia Department of Highways said such an ordinance would not be valid without approval from the Commissioner of Highways. City manager Jeff Mikorski said earlier that approval was unlikely.

In the end, council members mostly agreed that if challenged, the ordinance would likely stand in a court of law. The one member who voted against the ordinance said he wasn’t comfortable enough with the plan to vote “yes.”

Council members did pass an amendment to make the ordinance effective 90 days from passage, instead of immediately. They hope the three-month window of time is sufficient to work out the logistics of implementation.

A Neighborhood that Struggles with Poverty Has Helped Rehabilitate 50 Homes

We often hear about urban cities, like Detroit, that are dealing with abandoned, dilapidated buildings. But some communities in West Virginia are struggling with neighborhood blight too.

The WV Hub is working with partners across West Virginia to plan a three day event in Huntington this October. The summit will help people across West Virginia who are working to fix blighted, abandoned and dilapidated properties. Civic groups in Huntington have been collaborating on this type of work and have made great strides recently.

And in Charleston, two non-profits are working to rebuild and remove dilapidated homes in their neighborhood, known as the West Side Flats.

This building was once Dr. Hopson’s office

At the heart of the West Side Flats neighborhood is Mary C. Snow elementary school. This neighborhood has the second highest percentage of African American residents in West Virginia.

The school itself is named in honor of West Virginia’s first female African American principal of an integrated school. Snow was not only an educator- she was also known for her civic engagement in this neighborhood. And for most community organizers here, like Reverend Matthew J. Watts, the memory of the real Mary C. Snow is a reminder of what individuals can do to help revive the West Side.

“Some people just stay here, they want to see it turn around again, and we believe that it can. Despite the vacant houses, there’s still 4,000 reasons on the broader West Side, those are the kids. That is why we should fight. They deserve a chance to live a safe, wholesome, healthy place that inspires them,” says Watts.

Watts is the CEO of a non-profit called HOPE Community Development Corporation. He says the dilapidation of buildings reduces home values and can become a magnet for crime.

Roxy Todd speaking with Reverend Watts on 2nd Avenue, in front of one of the homes that Bob Hardy and the Charleston Economic Development Corporation built.

“On those four blocks, there are 61 vacant structures—61. And they pose a public health threat in terms of public safety, health, etc. for the children and families. And we believe that it contributes to the overall negative feelings this neighborhood has.”

But as Watts walks along 3rd Avenue and points to homes with fresh flowerbeds out front and houses that are well maintained, he says its clear that not everyone on the West Side has given up hope.

A vacant lot on 3rd Ave. that is being maintained as a green space

Many of the houses here still posses a historic charm from the days when this was an up and coming neighborhood for middle class African American families.

During segregation, this was also the cultural center of activity for the black community in Charleston, including tourists who were not allowed to stay downtown. But now, middle class families have moved away.

In the last year, Reverend Watts and his organization has spent $250,000 to remove asbestos and prepare 12 vacant homes for demolition. The removal of these structures was a partnership between HOPE CDC, the city of Charleston, and the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority.

Bob Hardy has been helping this neighborhood since the 1990’s. Before anyone else had a vision to restore this neighborhood, Hardy was working to rehab dilapidated homes along 2^nd Avenue.

Bob Hardy, standing in front of one of the 10 affordable houses that he helped build

Hardy’s father was a shop teacher, and he is a licensed contractor himself. As executive director of the Charleston Economic Community Development Corporation, he has helped build 10 new homes in the West Side flats neighborhood. He’s helped rehab about 50 houses.

Hardy grew up in the West Side Hills, which looks down into this neighborhood. His vision for restoring this area came because he believes it’s like the front yard of the entire West Side. He sees the potential here to develop affordable housing because of the neighborhood’s close proximity to downtown.

The community here has been supporting a large part of these efforts, even though 1 in 3 residents here are living in poverty.

And though he’s been involved in this work for over 20 years, Hardy says he believes the neighborhood is going to turn around and the people here are going to pull themselves out of poverty.

“The race is not given to the swift or to the strong, but to those who endure until the end. My mother gave me that. Never quit.”

Together, Hardy and Watts working to continue to rehab homes here on the West Side. They are each cautiously optimistic that Charleston officials can partner with them more in the future to restore the West Side flats neighborhood.

During the tour of the West Side flats neighborhood, Roxy Todd met up with a few correspondents from the PBS NewsHour who were visiting the Mary C. Snow school. Their story, “Summer slide: the year-round solution”, will air on September 7 on PBS NewsHour Weekend.

Reverend Watts speaks with PBS NewsHour correspondent Alison Stewart

Highways Report Expected One Year After Intial Release Date

The chairman of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways says the group will release its final report in late September almost a year after its initially set release date.

Jason Pizatella tells the Charleston Gazette the report is undergoing proofreading and editing.

Gov. Tomblin created the Blue Ribbon Commission nearly two years ago with the goal of issuing recommendations on how to better fund the state’s roadways. Commission members approved their recommendations in September of 2013, but the final report was delayed.

Pizatella says the delay was because of multiple reasons, but conceded that one was because lawmakers didn’t want to vote on tax increasing during an election year. But legislative committees have asked for the final report to be available for legislative interim meetings next month.

He says the final report doesn’t make any changes from the recommendations finalized last year.

Commissioners said the state needs to nearly double its road fund budget, from one to at least 2 billion dollars a year to adequately build and maintain the state highway system.

Lincoln Co. Awarded Federal Clean Water Grant

Lincoln County has been awarded more than a million dollars by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to extend clean water services in the county.

The rural development grant completes a multi-million dollar financial package for the Lincoln County project.

Congressman Nick Rahall’s office announced the funding yesterday and says the project will serve an additional 81 families in the Lower Mud River area.

Parkersburg's Memorial Bridge Closed for Repairs

A bridge linking Parkersburg and Belpre, Ohio, is shutting down for repairs.

The Memorial Bridge will close Monday. Repairs are expected to be completed in two weeks.

The $182,000 project includes replacing an expansion join and about 400 square feet of concrete deck.

The bridge spanning the Ohio River opened in 1954.

W.Va. Rural Roads Continue to Crumble, Highway Workers Face Possible Lay-Offs

More research has surfaced indicating the abysmal state of rural infrastructure these days, especially in West Virginia, and shortfalls in federal funding…

More research has surfaced indicating the abysmal state of rural infrastructure these days, especially in West Virginia, and shortfalls in federal funding for highway maintenance could make the problem worse as well as leave many road workers filing for unemployment.

TRIP Report

Recently a report was released by TRIP, a private national transportation research nonprofit out of Washington, DC.

The organization is sponsored by insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers; businesses involved in highway and transit engineering and construction; labor unions; and other organizations concerned with surface transportation.

It’s the second report in the last five years that investigates the nation’s rural transportation system. Their data indicates that nationally, since their last report in 2011:

rural pavement conditions have continued to slowly deteriorated
there have been modest improvements in overall bridge conditions
rural traffic fatalities continue to be of alarming concern

In West Virginia:

West Virginia ranks among the worst states, when it comes to the conditions of our roads
1/3 of the rural roads were listed in poor condition in 2012, and
13 percent of the state’s rural bridges were rated as structurally deficient

“Rural transportation has a traffic fatality rate nearly triple all other roads in the country,” says Rocky Moretti, the director of policy and research with TRIP.
He says, typically rural roads don’t have a lot of the safety features that are desirable—things that can have a significant impact making rural roads safer like:

rumble strips
paved shoulders
turn lanes
good lane markings
guard rails

Federal Funding Shortfall

In West Virginia, we skate a thin line financially as the state maintains the 6^th-largest highway system in the country. It’s a fact understood all too well by Mike Clowser, executive director of the Contractor’s Association of West Virginia. He says current federal shortfalls in highway funding are threatening road construction jobs.

Currently in West Virginia, over 200 federally funded Department of Highways contracts are underway, employing thousands of workers. Clowser says West Virginia is the only state he knows of that has no backup plan in the event that the federal dollars dry up.

Clowser reports the Department of Highways is giving contractors two options in light of the shortfall:

lay people off
continue working for 50 cents on the dollar

Clowser says the House has already passed a bill that addresses the shortfall and the Senate is in the process of working on a plan, but that time is running out before Congress goes to recess on the 1^st of August, leaving states to scramble during the height of construction season.