CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Highway Engineer Greg Bailey expects a interstate widening project on a busy stretch of Interstate 64 in Huntington to be completed this fall.
“It’s the first real area (we’ve widened) on the Huntington side of I-64 and this is a real important project for us,” Bailey said this week.
The approximate four-mile stretch begins near the Huntington Mall and stretches to the Hal Greer Boulevard exit. A contractor is adding one lane both east and westbound. Much of Interstate 64 is already three lanes or more in the Charleston area.
State Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox said he knows the work has been an inconvenience for Huntington-area residents.
“We appreciate their patience with us. That’s going to be a much welcomed project when it’s completed for those folks,” Mattox said.
Bailey expects two Interstate 77 bridge projects north of Charleston to be finished in the coming months. The work slows traffic daily in and out of the Capitol City.
“It’s very necessary,” he said. “We have two bridges where the original decks need replaced. We have a large traffic volume there but we’re working with the contractor.”
Bailey said the DOH has an incentive with the contractor to be done with the northbound bridge by the end of August and the southbound bridge later in the fall.