WVDOH open houses continue in Weston

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The West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) continued its series of open houses on Thursday, October 31, 2024, for the District 7 counties of Barbour, Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Upshur, and Webster. The open houses are for state, county, and local officials and members of the public to find out what the WVDOH in their area has been up to, and what projects are planned for the future.

District 7 Engineer Brian Cooper, P.E., said the district completed 71 paving projects so far in 2024, for a total amount of $61.4 million. But much of the paving is on Interstate 79, including several projects to completely rebuild the interstate from the ground up.

District 7 also has 29 bridge projects either complete or underway, for a total of about $65 million. The district - largely using its own drills - also built 13 piling walls to help correct slips and slides on area roads.

Cooper said District 7 has even more slide repairs planned for 2025, with 34 more piling walls in the works.

Funding through Gov. Jim Justice's $2.8 billion Roads to Prosperity program, plus supplemental budget appropriations by the West Virginia Legislature the last several years have freed up more money than ever for local highway districts to concentrate on core maintenance activities and fixing slips and slides.

"We are finally getting to the point where we're catching up on some of these slides," Cooper said. "Hopefully next year is when we wipe a lot of those off the list."

District 7 also has 11 more paving projects on tap for 2025, and 16 more bridge projects.

An aggressive repaving and highway reconstruction plan over the last several years has left the Mountain State's roads in better condition than they have been in for decades. WVDOH Chief Engineer of Operations Joe Pack, P.E., said the WVDOH will be shifting its emphasis more toward replacing and repairing bridges in coming years.