Tag: West Virginia Department of Transportation

Mall Owner Sues West Virginia's Department of Transportation

The owner of a West Virginia mall has filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Transportation, alleging that the state should have been responsible for repairs to the mall’s access bridge, which was washed out during a 2016 flood.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Tara Retail Group, which is headed by Bill Abruzzino, filed the lawsuit last week that says the department owns and has a legal responsibility to repair the right of way, including the bridge that provides access to Crossings Mall in Elkview.

The lawsuit states that the department’s refusal to repair the bridge constitutes a taking of the group’s property.

The Transportation Department said in its response that the company is obligated to repair the bridge and that it acknowledged the responsibility. The agency filed a motion to dismiss.

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.

Paving Companies Want Lawsuit Over Asphalt Costs Dismissed

More than half a dozen paving companies accused of developing a statewide monopoly to inflate the cost of asphalt have called for the case to be thrown out.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports defendants’ attorney Booth Goodwin said in a court filing Monday that the case should be dismissed because the West Virginia Attorney General is not involved.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways and mirrors other complaints filed by five cities, as well as the Kanawha County Commission.

Goodwin says the DOH cannot pursue the lawsuit without “using the State’s lawyer.”

Bailey & Glasser, an outside firm, filed lawsuits in October accusing the companies of creating a scheme to inflate the price of asphalt by up to 40 percent.

Amid Corruption Probe, Highway Engineers' Second Jobs Eyed

Amid a federal corruption probe, the West Virginia Department of Transportation is cracking down on highway engineers who have second jobs with private firms that pose a conflict of interest.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the department has ordered employees to disclose if they’ve been moonlighting with outside companies. Officials will then determine whether the second jobs pose a conflict of interest or if they are being done on state time.

The new measures come after an executive at a highway contracting business and a professor who works at Marshall University’s Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute were charged last month in a kickback scheme involving companies in South Carolina and Putnam County.

Workers face disciplinary actions if they do not fill out personnel forms regarding second jobs by Dec. 16.

W.Va. Department of Highways Questioned by Lawmakers

In a legislative interim meeting this week in Charleston lawmakers questioned officials from the state Department of Transportation and the Division of Highways about everything from current practices to choices in legal representation. 

The hearing came in response to ongoing lawsuits – one where federal charges have been filed against state Division of Highways employees in an alleged bribery scheme, and another involving an alleged monopoly that’s inflating asphalt prices in the state.

Mike Folio Director of the Department of Transportation’s legal division highlighted changes his agency is making in response to questioned business deals, but says there’s a larger culture of corruption to address.

“I don’t want to be pollyannish about this but I want to be candid – there’s fraud, there’s bid-rigging, there’s collusion in this industry,” Folio said. “So we need to be more vigilant, and that’s what we’re attempting to do.”

There may be some financial retribution for taxpayers. Lawmakers and lawyers indicated that should West Virginia Paving, the company that’s created the alleged asphalt monopoly, be found guilty, it could face hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

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