WESTOVER — It’s one of those good news, bad news situations.
The bad news – A highly requested sidewalk project along Westover’s Fairmont Road is being delayed at least a year.
The good news – The delay is tied to a planning study that could lead to significant corridor improvements, sidewalks included, through the heart of the city.
When the roughly $1.5 billion in federal RAISE Grant (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) awards were announced for 2024, the West Virginia Department of Transportation had three projects on the list.
One in Charleston. One in Beckley. One in Westover.
In Westover, the state is looking to spend the $1,275,000 grant to take a good, hard look at the U.S. 19 corridor that runs the length of the city as Fairmont Road and Holland Avenue.
According to the information included with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2024 RAISE awards, improvements are sorely needed.
“The project will improve the safety of the US 19 corridor for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. The corridor currently poses a range of safety risks, which will be addressed with a combination of new sidewalks, repaired sidewalks, bike lanes and enhanced traffic management.”
The local Metropolitan Planning Organization agrees it’s a priority. It listed the corridor as a Tier 1 project as part of the 2022 update to its Metropolitan Transportation Plan. At that time, the cost of the needed upgrades were estimated at $13.3 million.
When Westover was informed of the pending study, the news came with a request from the state.
“So, they’re committed to making that better and the DOH came to us and asked us if we could postpone the sidewalk grants until they were done with this study, because they want to make sure all the work that gets done on this corridor, from front to back, fits with this study, basically,” Westover Public Works Director Jason Stinespring said.
The sidewalk grants in question are a collection of funding sources pulled together by the city to construct a much-needed sidewalk along Fairmont Road, starting at Savannah Street and running toward Dents Run Boulevard.
Two of those funding sources – a $400,000 Surface Transportation Block Grant through the MPO and a $125,000 Transportation Alternative Grant – are state sourced. Stinespring said those funds will be held for future use.
That’s not the case for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant, which the city will essentially lose.
Westover’s plan was to build as much sidewalk as the funds would cover, then pick it up again when more money became available.
“[The state] is doing this [study] to eventually have all this work done, so they said there’s going to be plenty of money to pull from to probably get a sidewalk the whole way down the road, to be honest with you,” Stinespring said, explaining any projects resulting from the study are likely at least two years away.
“With the state putting that much effort into it with a million-dollar grant, our thinking at least is they’re really wanting to do something nice with this,” he said. “It does stink with all the work we put into it, and we were excited for the sidewalk, but I think trying to look in the long-term, working with them on this is going to get us the best product in the corridor.”
