West Virginia Department of Transporation Story Archives

Wheeling Streetscape Project May Offer Small Business Financial Relief Plan

With limited customer access for dozens of shops and restaurants, Wheeling City Council will vote on a relief plan that offers qualified businesses credits against their Business and Occupation (B & O) taxes and up to $10,000 in financial aid.

The $32 million, two-year streetscape project now underway includes total rebuilds of busy Main and Market streets along with new infrastructure and landscaping throughout downtown Wheeling.

Chef Matt Welsch owns the Vagabond Kitchen located in the thick of the construction. He said the financial help is appreciated for a project that’s long overdue.

“It’s been pushed off and pushed off because it’s a state route,” Welsch said. “It’s going to be absolutely wonderful when it’s done. I just hope it’s not a beautiful ghost town.”

The plan is officially called the “Downtown Streetscape Project to provide small retail business B & O tax credits and monetary relief of up to $10,000 for lost revenue of Small Retail Businesses.” Council has set aside $300,000 to fund the project.

Welsch said as the project got past the beginning stages, “there was a whole lot of hoping for the best and not really knowing how to plan for the worst.”

“There’s sporadic outbreaks of construction throughout downtown,” Welsch said. “There’s been poor communication from the construction company, with city council and with the businesses, so we really never know what’s going to happen. At the end of the day, it’s still just a minor inconvenience for folks to come down and support us.”

A Dec. 6 project update from the West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) noted that, to date, crews have removed existing sidewalks and replaced them with proposed sidewalks including some of the new streetscape features along the west side of Main Street. The release said drainage structure work continues throughout the downtown area.

The release said remaining work to be performed includes sidewalk replacement along the remaining east side of Main Street, both sides of 16th Street, 10th Street, Market Street, as well as a couple short segments of Chapline and Eoff Street.

Also yet to be done, remaining streetscape activities (trees, shrubs, etc.); work associated with removal of existing and replacing with new traffic signals; and milling and paving of all streets included in the project.

Wheeling City Council will vote on the streetscape relief plan Jan. 2, 2024.

Annual Student Engineering Contest Kicks Off

The West Virginia Department of Transportation wants students interested in engineering to design a bridge.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) wants students interested in engineering to design a bridge.

Submissions for the 23rd annual West Virginia Bridge Design & Build Contest are now open.

The contest is designed to encourage STEM education and help address a shortage of engineers. More than a third of WVDOT’s current job listings are for engineering positions.

Middle and high school students are tasked with designing the lowest cost bridge using bridge design software developed specifically for students.

Finalists will be invited to compete for cash prizes at WVU Tech in Beckley in the spring. There, they will build a balsa bridge to see how much force the model will stand before collapsing.

Every student who participates in the contest gets a free BridgeWalk tour for themselves and their families.

Registration is free. Students have until Wednesday, March 1, 2024, to register, download their bridge design software and submit their bridge design. All materials for the competition, including a YouTube tutorial by Secretary of Transportation, Jimmy Wriston, are available on the website.

Work Zone Safety Gets Renewed Focus After Flagger Hit And Run

Spring is the start of many things in West Virginia, including road work season. With work crews out in force around the state fixing potholes and repaving, there is an increased focus on the risks associated with the job.

Craig Howell was flagging traffic outside of Robert Bland Middle School in Weston on the evening of April 28 when a road worker’s worst nightmare came true.

“He was taking a turn. He took it too sharp inwards and hit me,” Howell said.

Howell got lucky, walking away with minor injuries to his leg. The driver, who stopped momentarily before fleeing the scene, is still being sought by authorities.

Howell said incidents like this and similar close calls happen despite all the precautions workers take.

“We set out signs and hopefully the traffic will pay attention to it, but most of the time people just drive by and don’t pay attention to them,” Howell said. “Everyone’s always in a hurry these days, are on their phones or any type of stuff to be distracted.”

WVDOT says that on average, 85 percent of the people who die in work zone crashes are drivers or passengers of the vehicles involved in the wreck.While work zone fatalities are low, state statistics show they do seem to be on the rise.

There were 18 fatal crashes in West Virginia work zones in just two years, from 2018 to 2020, according to most recent data. There were 15 fatal crashes in the entire seven-year period preceding 2018.

Recent data shows the trend is worsening, which means road workers and drivers alike are at an increased risk.

According to data from the state’s Department of Transportation Traffic Engineering Division, 2021 saw nearly 900 work zone crashes, with more than 300 resulting in injuries. Five of those crashes proved to be fatal.

“People that are getting hurt are our fathers and mothers. These are our family members, our neighbors. And they should not have to worry about making it home in the evening,” said Josh Booth, R-Wayne.

Booth is a state delegate, but he grew up helping his mother run the family business, Highway Safety, Inc.

“When my mom said go play in traffic she meant it,” he said.

Booth may joke around a little bit, but as he brings a new generation into the business, he takes the job seriously. So does the state of West Virginia.

Last month, as temperature started to rise and regular road work commenced across the state, the Public Service Commission of West Virginia, along with the West Virginia Department of Transportation and other law enforcement agencies announced an increase of enforcement in the state’s work zones.

Booth said having officers on scene is a crucial addition to the safety arsenal, but he acknowledged it’s simply not possible for departments to dispatch officers to every single work zone in the state. That’s why he wants to modernize work zone enforcement.

“I introduced some legislation to use camera assisted enforcement,” he said. “The idea was not to give you a fine or give you a ticket. In fact, it was the opposite. It was just to get you to slow down.”

Booth’s bill failed to pass this year, but he said there is increasing interest. For now, cameras or not, the biggest factor determining worker safety on West Virginia roads is drivers.

“When they see a work zone and slow down because most of these guys have family themselves and they just want to go home at the end of the day.” Howell said.

W.Va. Becoming More Bike-Friendly

West Virginia is making improvements as a bike-friendly state, according to data published by a national bicycle advocacy group.

The League of American Bicyclists lists West Virginia as 28th for laws and policies designed to keep bicyclists safe and to promote bicycling.

West Virginia ranked last in the league’s first ranking in 2008.

States are rated on infrastructure and funding as well as traffic laws and practices.

In a press release, the West Virginia Department of Transportation highlighted the 2014 passage of the Bicycle Safety Law, which requires drivers to give cyclists three feet of safe passing distance when overtaking them on the road.

The department has also been providing funding to communities to better accommodate bicycles.

The League of American Bicyclists has also designated three West Virginia communities, Morgantown, Wheeling and Beckley, as bronze-level bicycle-friendly communities.

To qualify, communities must have bike lanes on a third of their arterial streets and bicycle education programs in schools and for the public.

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.