WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginia’s country roads are a dilapidated mess and it’s only getting worse. That’s the word from a national organization which has surveyed the rural roads of all 50 states. TRIP, a Washington based national transportation group, finds 29 percent of West Virginia’s rural, non-interstate roads are in severe disrepair. The state ranked sixth in the country for roads in poor condition and rural bridges are ranked at 16th in the country for poor condition with 13 percent of those bridges considered structurally deficient.
“The most alarming part is the state ranks 7th in the country in terms of the fatality rate on those rural roads,” said Carolyn Kelley, Associate Director of Research and Communications for TRIPP. “Because they lack some safety features we’d like to see more people than should are losing their lives on West Virginia’s rural roads.”
The study’s revelations are no surprise to West Virginians who drive those roads daily. However, what may be most shocking is the reason they continue to deteriorate. Kelley blames that directly on Congress.
“States don’t have a good idea of what federal funding they can expect over the long term,” she said. “That keeps them from being able to plan more large scale, long term projects that will require a significant amount of federal funding.”
Congress is up against another deadline to approve a comprehensive highway funding bill. However, it’s expected by observers all they’ll do is create another stop-gap funding measure which will continue the status quo for three more months. Kelley said Congress needs to put aside differences and work out where they money will come from and then make the commitment. She says there’s concern over where to find the money as well as typical partisan bickering over the best way to fund a long term bill. Meanwhile, the people suffer.
“As this lack of funding continues, the roads and bridges continue to deteriorate and the fatality rate remains alarmingly high,” said Kelley. “Until that funding can be secured at the local, state, and federal level these improvements won’t go forward.”