By Hannah Williams, WAJR.com
MORGANTOWN — Monongalia County residents and commuters should continue to expect road delays that will turn into new and improved roads.
But, it’ll be worth it, according to Division of Highways District 4 Engineer Don Williams.
“We try to be smart. We understand the situation. We understand that the students are coming into town,” said Williams on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “A lot of people say ‘why can’t you get this work done before the students get to town?’ These are big projects no matter how you do it, unless you wanna pay a phenomenal amount of money. We try to do it with traffic control but there will be delays there’s no question with that. Hopefully we can all just be very patient with it.”
The DOH is expected to complete 143 road projects by the year 2020, but are currently busy with projects on Monongahela Boulevard, Interstate 79, and University Avenue.
Multiple lanes are closed due to the current project on I-79, extending from the Star City exit to the Pennsylvania state line.
“What you’re seeing there is going to be there quite a while,” Williams said. “We know there’s been some delays gong into that work zone, but when that project’s done that’s quite a section of interstate repairs and its really going to be nice when it’s completed.”
According to Williams, the I-79 project is one of the first warranty jobs that District 4 has ever done.
“What’s happening is the contractor, what you’ve seen is, he took the asphalt off and the pulverizer looks very archaic,” Williams said. “It just drops a big dead weight onto the concrete and it pulverizes it. And that relieves the stress out of it. Then they’ll pave back on top of that with a little bit of asphalt. It’s a pretty neat project.”
Along with I-79, DOH has plans to widen Mon Boulevard to five lanes. This project will eliminate the free parking alongside the road that has previously been used for basketball games and WVU Coliseum events. A new sidewalk will take its place.
“We really believe, and, from what I’ve seen also, it’s really going to improve safety,” Williams said. “We’re really working on pedestrian issues in the Morgantown area, and if you’ve ever driven Monongahela Boulevard during a game day or special event, you’ve got hundreds of people going back and forth and again, we’re trying to eliminate as much of that as we can, too.”
The boulevard project is expected to begin in four to six weeks.
Along with the new sidewalk, the DOH is working on a “demonstration project” on Patteson Drive. That project is said to be used as a way to locate areas where pedestrian safety could be improved using new, innovative techniques. A subject matter committee group, made up of representatives from WVU and the community are working to come up with a new design for Patteson.
In order to remain proactive, the DOH has also been working with pavement preservation, which can be seen on University Avenue. This method, described by Williams as a “good investment in our infrastructure,” involves a one-inch overlay of asphalt.
“We’re doing more and more of what we call pavement preservation,” Williams said. “So if something deteriorates to a certain point, instead of letting it get really bad, we hit it with a thin overlay and we add 10 or 12 years of life to it.”
According to Williams, the projects are funded through multiple sources such as the GARVEE bond and General Obligation bond as well as federal and state monies.
With all of the delays that the projects could cause, Williams said the DOH is working to help eliminate some of the traffic congestion. The DOH is trying to work on the projects during nights and has plans to have projects stopped two to three days before football games.
Projects on Mile ground Road and W.Va. 705 are expected this fall and early spring 2019.
“It’s almost unprecedented the amount of work, but we’re up for the challenge,” Williams said. “We’ve always had a lot of work in this district. We’re a very proactive district. We’ve got some things we’re working on to bring in some assistance, some help on our end, but no, it will get done and we’ll try to do the professional job we always do.”
