Map Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Department of Transportation Creates Interactive, Online Map of Road Projects

The West Virginia Department of Transportation has released an all-new, interactive, online map that shows every current road project across the state — for both primary and secondary roads.

The map provides real-time statistics on how much road work has been completed across a variety of categories, including Gov. Jim Justice’s Secondary Roads Maintenance initiative and the Roads to Prosperity program.

Secretary of Transportation Byrd White said in a press release the map was created in an effort to be transparent with the public about road issues.

“Under the leadership of Governor Justice, we have stated that we were going to provide a way to show the public, in a transparent way, the progress we have made in a short amount of time,” White said. “This interactive website allows everyone who’s interested to see what’s been done and what will be done, before the end of the year. It’s pretty remarkable.”

See below for a tutorial on how to use the map:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3hkB3X5Mmk

Road problems, specifically on secondary roads, were the focus of heated discussion and contention during the regular 2019 state legislative session. Since then, the West Virginia DOT has released lists for each county showing all secondary road projects.

The new interactive map displays all road projects for 2019, including projects that are underway, those about to be started, and those completed.

To date, more than 30,000 miles of projects have been completed, including ditching, patching, paving and road stabilization.

Appalachian Power Launches Interactive Map for Outages

Appalachian Power says its website has a new interactive map to simplify how customers can get details about outages.

The company says in a statement that the new mapping tool at www.appalachianpower.com makes it easier to research or report power outages.

The new map refreshes every 15 minutes to provide updated information on the location and number of outages along with an estimated time of restoration.

Appalachian Power has 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee.

Want to Eat Local in Appalachia? Here's a Map That Can Help

What does a Cornbread Festival in Tennessee, a Paw Paw festival in Ohio and the Hatfield McCoy Moonshine Distillery in West Virginia all have in common? They’re among hundreds of destinations featured on a map called Bon Appétit Appalachia. The map features Appalachian restaurants, wineries, and festivals serving locally sourced food has just been updated with more listings by The Appalachian Regional Commission. The map has 62 regional food destinations in West Virginia.

The Bon Appétit Appalachia Map was first published in 2014. Since then, hundreds of new listings have been included on the map, featuring restaurants like the Dish Café in Raleigh County. Manager Rosy Corley says customers come for the locally raised beef and fresh veggies. “They’re just so excited to be able to eat what we call real food that’s not processed and I think that trend is becoming more and more popular.”

And that increasing popularity for authentic local food is driving other restaurants across Appalachia to buy food locally when possible, even if doing so can get expensive.

Map from the Appalachian Regional Commission features hundreds of regional food destinations across Appalachia

Another location on the map is Fish Hawk Acres farm and catering in Upshur County, a business that recently expanded, opening a new market and cafe in downtown Buckhannon. Debbie Hubert is a caterer with Fish Hawk Acres. She says the biggest challenge they face trying to buy more local ingredients is the time it takes to find the high quality food items they need on a consistent basis. “We buy as much local food as possible, but if we have to get product out of season, we get it from a bigger food source,” Hubert says.

The Appalachian Regional Commission hopes their Bon Appétit Appalachia map will help encourage more customers to visit small businesses across the region.