MORGANTOWN – In late July, Morgantown Staff Engineer Drew Gatlin conceded the city was “slightly behind” schedule in terms of its 2025 paving plan, but remained in position to get streets paved this year.
As we’ve now moved solidly into winter conditions, Morgantown City Council was informed last week that the overwhelming majority, if not all, of that work will actually take place in 2026.
During its final regular session in November, council approved a $955,938 contract with Parrotta Paving. That number includes a base bid of $803,180.50 for the paving work and $152,757.50 for the reconstruction of North High Street.
“As part of that, we are doing about six miles of roadway …,” Engineering and Public Works Director Damien Davis said. “Likely roads probably won’t get started until spring, but we are going to work with the contractor, talk to them depending on weather, and see if we can get started on North High Street immediately. That will be our main priority with trying to get that done this season, depending on weather.”
Asked if pushing the project into next year would impact the regular 2026 paving project, Davis said that is not the plan.
“It shouldn’t affect next year’s paving,” he said, later adding, “Regular paving, or our 2026 paving project, will still go out as normal.”
In years past, the city has had both its approved paving list and contractor in place as early as May.
There were a number of reasons given for the delay this time around, including the fact that Davis spent the first half of 2025 serving as the city’s interim city manager as well as the director of its engineering division, which took on a significant effort to update the street condition assessment that informs how paving dollars should be allocated across the approximately 100 miles of city-maintained roadways.
It was also noted that the city was simultaneously leading multiple projects throughout the year, including the $3 million renovation of the city garage, the widening and pedestrian improvements on North Street, the realignment of Campus Drive and First Street, and bridge projects tied to recreation in both White Park and the Flegal Reservoir property.
“I think we did accomplish a lot this year,” he said. “We did do a lot of good projects.”
This year’s deferred paving work is expected to hit some 44 streets.
As mentioned, it will also include a reconstruction of North High Street that has been in a holding pattern due to subsurface utility work – most notably the replacement of WVU’s steam tunnel below the street.
“We are taking all the bricks out and building it back up from scratch,” Davis said of North High. “We do not have enough for the bricks to be put back, mostly because if you go out there now, that road is more asphalt patch than it is brick.”
Davis said the existing bricks will be saved for potential use in a future project.
The city allocated $1.4 million in its current budget for the 2025 paving plan. Annual paving projects are paid for out of the $3 weekly user fee (Safe Streets & Safe Communities Municipal Fee) that went into effect in January 2016.
Davis said the roughly $450,000 not included in the paving contract will be rolled into a forthcoming project to address ADA-compliant ramps along the resurfaced streets. Going forward, he said, the paving and ramp work will likely be staggered.
“In the past, we had a [paving] budget of $300,000, so it wasn’t such an issue. But now that we’re paving six miles of roadway, we have to update all those ADA ramps at the same time. So it becomes a problem where the concrete contractor and the asphalt contractor are bumping into each other,” he said. “So, we’re kicking around making those two different projects now. So this will all be paving, and we’ll come back in and do ADA ramps at a separate time.”
According to city documents, the 2025 paving plan includes milling and a 1.5-inch overlay for all or portions of: Afton, Ash, Beaver, Bradley, Court, East End, Fortney, Garrett, George, Gibbons, Hill, Moore, Morgan, Parsons, Perdue, Sarah, Vernon, Warrick and Wells streets;
Clearview, Curtis, Eastland, Euclid, Fife, Jackson, Mansion, Pennsylvania, Wayne and Westview avenues;
Kenwood, Schubert, Sylvan, Villa and Vista places; and
Hart Field, Meadowbrook and Ridgeley roads.
Overlay only is anticipated for: Cedar Street, Linden Street, Glendon Avenue and Morgan Alley.
Reconstruction projects are expected for: North High Street, Springbrook Street and Wilson Circle.
