Tag: Transportation

Lane, Sign Improvements Aim To Reduce Traffic In Eastern Panhandle

Lane and signage improvements in Berkeley County aim to reduce traffic congestion in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. The Department of Transportation project was announced Tuesday.

In recent years, West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle has experienced population growth and undertaken new development projects. While this provides economic benefit, it also creates a new problem: traffic.

West Virginia Route 9, which stretches from Morgan County to Jefferson County, has become increasingly prone to traffic congestion, Gov. Jim Justice said Tuesday.

Justice — alongside West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) Secretary Jimmy Wriston and West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley — visited Martinsburg Tuesday to unveil a new WVDOT project that aims to improve travel on the highway.

“It’s a growing area,” Wriston said. “We got some inefficiencies in the way traffic moves through the area on Route 9, and we want to address some of those things.”

The fifteen-step project includes adding new turn lanes, improving major intersections and enhancing lane signage over 10 to 15 miles of the highway in Berkeley County northwest of Martinsburg.

Currently, an average of 24,300 vehicles travel on portions of the highway each day, according to a press release from Justice’s office. Crash rates on the highway are roughly double the state average, the release said.

Blair said that improving transportation infrastructure in the Eastern Panhandle is important to sustain local growth.

“It’s about getting the work done,” he said. “It’s about stepping forward and getting things right.”

Justice echoed Blair’s sentiments, and said infrastructure plays an important role in attracting new residents.

“If we’re wanting to recruit more and more and more folks here and all of a sudden they’re sitting in traffic all day long … are they really going to come?” he asked. “We have got to absolutely market ourselves.”

Snow Delays Repairs After Morgan County Train Derailment

Weather-related delays have pushed back the repairs of a Morgan County rail line after 10 cars on a CSX Transportation train derailed Monday afternoon.

After 10 cars on a CSX Transportation train derailed in rural Morgan County Monday, emergency personnel restored one of two affected rail lines in less than a day.

Emergency officials said they have already removed the rail cars involved in the incident.

But recent snow in the Eastern Panhandle has pushed back repairs on the other affected rail line, according to Sheriee Bowman, CSX senior manager of media relations.

Originally, CSX expected to complete rail line repairs Wednesday afternoon. But Bowman wrote in an email that weather has played a role in delaying the rail repairs.

As a result, service has not yet been restored to the Morgan County portion of the railway affected by the derailment.

As of Thursday, “work will continue throughout the day until service is fully restored,” Bowman wrote.

She did not specify when CSX expects to fully complete the rail line repairs.

Manchin, Capito Seek To Overturn Biden Vehicle Emissions Rule

The rule, made final in November, requires state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to set declining emissions targets.

West Virginia’s U.S. Senators are pushing back on the Biden administration’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito have co-sponsored a resolution to overturn a Federal Highway Administration rule on emissions targets.

The rule, made final in November, requires state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to set declining emissions targets.

Both Capito and Manchin argue the agency lacks the authority from Congress to issue such a requirement.

The rule itself, though, does not specify how low the targets have to be, as long as they’re declining, and does not impose penalties on states for not meeting them.

The House of Representatives has a similar bill to overturn the rule.

Justice Wages ‘All-Out Assault’ On West Virginia’s Potholes

Gov. Jim Justice announced he would use an upcoming spell of warm weather to tackle an increase in potholes on West Virginia roadways, with the help of a Putnam County asphalt plant.

With clear weather on the horizon, Gov. Jim Justice said that he will launch an “all-out assault” on potholes, with goals to repair the worst on state roadways in the week ahead.

Justice announced the initiative, dubbed “Operation RIP Potholes,” in a Wednesday press briefing, with the AI-generated graphic of a headstone beside him on the livestream. He accredited the move toward road repair to the upcoming clear weather, and the winter storm that exacerbated road damage earlier this month.

Typically, West Virginia asphalt plants close for the winter because it is difficult to fill potholes in freezing conditions.

But Justice said the clear weather presents an opportunity for the state. He partnered with an asphalt plant in Putnam County, which agreed to temporarily reopen for the week or so ahead to repair severe road damages.

Justice has also made arrangements with asphalt plants in Princeton and Morgantown to join the project beginning Feb. 5, according to a Wednesday press release.

The state is currently patching potholes with hot asphalt mix in 10 West Virginia counties — Boone, Cabell, Clay, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, Putnam and Wayne counties, specifically — according to Jake Bumgarner, operations division director for the West Virginia Department of Highways. Bumgarner delivered an update on Justice’s project during the press briefing.

Additionally, Bumgarner said that the state is working to fill potholes with cold mix asphalt in all 55 counties. Cold mix asphalt is a cheaper, less durable material typically used as a short-term pothole fix.

Justice added that this winter he experienced first-hand the dangers posed by potholes.

“Just the other day… as I was coming down the turnpike, there was a series of four or five (potholes) and they were really bad,” Justice said. “It could cause big-time wrecks.”

Potholes can form when freezing road conditions are followed by sudden spells of warmth, like last week’s winter storm.

“That freeze-thaw cycle is heck on our roads,” Bumgarner said.

With climate change raising temperatures statewide, researchers say these conditions are likely to continue in years ahead. For now, Justice said his administration is doing what it can to address potholes on a case-by-case basis.

“I know that they’re tough on your vehicles, and we’re trying,” he said. “We’re absolutely trying, and we’re going to try even harder.”

Bill That Would Strike Down ‘Rolling Coal’ Sparks Senate Committee Debate

A bill that would restrict “rolling coal” — a form of protest in which drivers release thick clouds of smog from there vehicles — advanced in the West Virginia Senate on Monday, but not without pushback from some lawmakers.

A controversial bill that would prohibit “rolling coal” on roadways advanced in the West Virginia Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Monday — but not without pushback from some lawmakers.

Rolling coal refers to modifying diesel fuel in a motor vehicle in order to pollute the air with thick, dark smog. For years, rolling coal on highways has served as a display of allegiance to the coal industry in spite of mounting environmentalist pushback.

Elsewhere in the United States, lawmakers have restricted the form of protest in light of environmental, health and safety concerns associated with emitting a pollutant into the air.

Now, West Virginia legislators are considering their own restrictions on the practice. The West Virginia Senate is actively reviewing Senate Bill 436, which would render the contentious form of protest a misdemeanor.

The bill reached the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Monday, where discussions focused on the safety risk associated with reduced visibility on West Virginia roads.

Sponsored by Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summers, the bill penalizes deliberately selling, making or using diesel additives to produce “visible smoke emissions.” It would apply to all motorized vehicles on public roadways, but not on private land.

The bill passed through the committee Monday but drew pushback from senators who described it as a crackdown on pro-coal West Virginians, or an unnecessary piece of legislation to focus on.

Rolling coal refers to the deliberate emission of thick, black smog from a motor vehicle.
Credit: toa555/Adobe Stock

Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, was an outspoken critic of the bill during Monday’s meeting. Karnes alleged the pending law would suppress some West Virginians’ right to protest.

“People who are doing this rolling coal are simply expressing their support for West Virginia’s coal industry,” Karnes said. “This is an attack on people who support our coal industry.”

“We may not like that particular statement,” he continued. “But they have a right to express their political views.”

Others who voted to advance the bill said that, regardless of their own perceptions of the protests, the law would not mark a clear enough suppression of coal supporters’ rights to preclude it from further consideration.

“I don’t see this as an anti-coal bill,” said Sen. Glen Jeffries, R-Putnam.

Regardless, members of the committee agreed to scale back penalties for those who violate the law.

Under an earlier draft of the bill, repeat rolling coal offenders could face up to six months imprisonment. The committee deemed this excessive, and amended the bill so that violators would only incur fines up to $500.

With the committee’s approval, the amended bill will now return to the Senate where lawmakers will determine whether to send it to the House of Delegates.

Senate Bill Could Prohibit Driving Too Slow In Left Lane

The West Virginia Senate advanced legislation that would crack down on slow driving in the left lane of an interstate highway.

Updated on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 at 5:26 p.m.

A new bill advancing through the West Virginia Senate aims to ensure slow drivers steer clear of the left lane. 

On Monday, the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced Senate Bill 441, which would penalize drivers for traveling at an unsafely slow speed in the leftmost lane of a four-lane interstate highway.

The bill would affect 25 different roadways in West Virginia, each of which would receive signage to notify drivers of the law. Committee Attorney Marey Casey said the bill was based on legislation in other states, including Arkansas.

Under the bill, driving too slowly in the left lane would be classified as a misdemeanor, and punishable by fines of $100 for first offense, or $200 for each subsequent offense within a year.

Unsafe driving is not defined in a numerical, miles-per-hour manner in the bill. Instead, it describes the offense as driving slowly enough “to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic.” Ultimately, law enforcement officials would determine whether an individual drives at a slow enough speed to commit the offense.

Still, the bill makes exceptions for some circumstances, like when drivers pass one another, navigate around highway construction, or seek to avoid dangerous road conditions.

The bill passed through the committee with no pushback, and will be referred back to the Senate for a first reading.

**Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story said the bill had been referred to the full Senate on third reading. This was incorrect. The bill has been sent to the Senate and is expected to be on first reading.

Exit mobile version