Tag: West Virginia Paving

W.Va.’s Paving Season Highlights Work Zone Safety, Zero Fatality Goal

In 2022, there were 800 crashes in West Virginia work zones, killing eight people and injuring 276. The Department of Transportation said all those crashes were avoidable.

In his Wednesday media briefing, Gov. Jim Justice said the 2023 paving season will include 126 projects statewide, covering all 55 counties. 

He said more than 260 miles of highway will be resurfaced and more than 26,500 miles of roadway will be reviewed for pothole patching.

It’s a total investment of $290 million,” Justice said. “Additional miles will be added to the roadways, coupled with the larger projects that are all going on.”

Two larger West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) road and bridge rebuild projects include stretches of I-64 in Cabell and Kanawha counties.

Five Roads to Prosperity projects are scheduled to begin construction this season, including the replacement of two rural bridges. 

Contractors are replacing the Philip Run Bridge in Calhoun County. Construction is also expected to replace the Middle Fork Bridge in Grant County and the bridge at Hedgesville High School in Berkeley County.

Other plans include repaving Henry Camp Road in Pleasants County, and Liverpool Road in Roane County. Contractors will also soon begin on a $15.3 million project to repave a five-mile stretch of Interstate 64 in Raleigh County, from Airport Road to the Glade Creek Bridge.

Justice pointed out the WVDOT’s interactive online road project map on the Department of Transportation website that shows all underway and pending road projects. 

“Everyone can keep tabs on how much work we’ve completed and everyone can see what’s coming next,” Justice said.

The seasonal workload comes with a work zone safety goal of zero fatalities. There’s an enforcement partnership that has been formed between local, county and state law enforcement with WVDOT work zone managers. Justice said reaching the zero fatalities goal requires a police crackdown and using safe driving habits anywhere near road projects. 

“Traveling up and down the road, at whatever mile an hour it may be, they are within feet of you,” Justice said. “And it’s so easy to have a catastrophe. So please be really careful.” 

In 2022, there were 800 crashes in West Virginia work zones, killing eight people and injuring 276. T

he Department of Transportation said all those crashes were avoidable.

W.Va. Suit Says Asphalt Companies' Have Monopoly

West Virginia’s attorney general is suing 11 companies, saying they have monopolized the asphalt paving business and driven up the state’s costs for years.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s suit filed Wednesday follows another filed by the state Division of Highways in October. Morrisey says that lawsuit was withdrawn because his office actually has the authority.

The complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court alleges violations of the state’s antitrust law and seeks damages.

Morrisey says overcharges would be determined in court discovery.

His office is requesting competitive bids from law firms to take the case for between 17 and 25 percent of the recovery.

The complaint says three companies acquired smaller competitors and used no-compete agreements to lock up the market in the southern, southwestern and west central regions of the state.

Kanawha County Commission Joins W.Va. Paving Lawsuit

The Kanawha County Commission is joining the city of Charleston, the state of West Virginia and three other cities in the state in suing West Virginia Paving over an alleged monopoly.

Commissioners voted Wednesday to join the lawsuit, which was filed last week in Kanawha County Circuit Court, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.

The complaint alleges that West Virginia Paving Inc. and its sister companies violated the state’s Antitrust Act. The companies took control of at least 15 asphalt plants and created a scheme that caused the municipalities to pay at least 40 percent more for asphalt, according to the lawsuit.

WV Paving, in a news release, said “there is no factual or legal basis for the lawsuit.”

Kanawha County has spent more than $822,000 on paving projects from WV Paving since 2007, said Deputy County Manager Andrew Gunnoe. More than $600,000 of that amount was part of a project to build a new bridge in Coonskin Park.

“I understand a lot of our paving is subsidized by state and federal funds; that’s not the point,” commission President Kent Carper said. “It’s public funds. My observation is this: If their allegations are true — they had two companies competing with one another after they signed an agreement or a representation that they were independent — there’s a word for that.”

Carper said he plans to ask other county agencies whether they plan to join the lawsuit.

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