Tag: Tom Smith

Gov. Jim Justice Fires Transportation Secretary Tom Smith

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has fired state transportation secretary and highways commissioner Tom Smith.

Justice announced Smith’s firing in a brief statement Sunday, March 10.

The governor says he wants “a new direction” for the department, including “a return to the core mission of maintaining the quality of our secondary roads and bridges.”

Voters in 2017 passed a referendum for the state to sell $1.6 billion in bonds to finance state road repairs and construction. In his State of the State address in January, Justice proposed steering road bond money meant for major projects toward repairing secondary roads.

On Friday Justice said he would announce his plans Wednesday to accelerate secondary road repairs and maintenance. The governor said “our secondary roads aren’t being addressed with the urgency needed.”

Groundbreaking Held for Corridor H Section in West Virginia

State officials have hailed the start of construction on a new stretch of the four-lane Corridor H highway in West Virginia.

Gov. Jim Justice and state Transportation Secretary Tom Smith attended the groundbreaking Thursday for the 7.5-mile section that will stretch from the Randolph County community of Kerens to Parsons.

Justice also asked for support of a road bond referendum scheduled for Oct. 7. Justice says “there is no vote any bigger than this vote” and “no highway in this state that’s as important as that highway right there.”

Corridor H begins at the intersection of Interstate 79 and U.S. Route 33 near Weston. It would end at the junction of Interstates 81 and 66 in Front Royal, Virginia.

The referendum would issue bonds to support about $3 billion to repair and rebuild highways and bridges.

Timetable Described for W.Va. Road Projects

West Virginia Transportation Secretary Tom Smith says the Justice administration’s road and bridge reconstruction initiative will start with about $350 million of road resurfacing in the next few months originally scheduled for 2018 and 2019.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Smith told contractors Tuesday that phase will emphasize more heavily traveled secondary roads ineligible for federal funding.

About $440 million in bonds are planned to go to market in October and in March producing revenue for bigger projects like bridge replacements and interstate repairs.

He says about $130 million in Parkways Authority bonds also will be issued early next year, the first installment of about $500 million.

Should voters pass an October referendum, he says another $600 to $800 million of bonds will be issued in March.

Charleston Area Losing Construction Jobs at Second Fastest Rate in Nation

The Charleston area has lost construction jobs at the second-fastest rate in the nation according to a survey from the Associated General Contractors of America.

A representative of the national group presented the results of the survey of 358 metro areas at the Capitol Wednesday, accompanied by West Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Tom Smith.

AGCA Chief Economist Ken Simonson said the Charleston metro area lost about 1,200 construction jobs between April 2016 and April 2017, a 16 percent decrease.

The current employment totals are the lowest recorded in the area since 1990, when the federal government first began tracking the data.

Smith used the survey results as an opportunity to push Gov. Jim Justice’s road bond initiative passed by the Legislature during the 2017 regular session. 

Smith said lawmakers now need to approve bills to increase the gasoline tax and Division of Motor Vehicle fees to pay for the billion-dollar bond, even though voters have yet to approve the initiative.

“This is a situation that we can do something about,” he said. “We can make wise choices that make this not happen, make this slide stop.”

Smith estimates the bond could create 48,000 jobs in West Virginia. That number is based on a national infrastructure investment equation created by Duke University.

The Contractors Association of West Virginia is affiliated with the AGCA and has been lobbying lawmakers to approve the tax and fee increases to fund the road bond.

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