NITRO, W.Va. — A project to widen Interstate 64 to six lanes in Putnam County is being discussed by state lawmakers.
State Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox met with a legislative interim committee Monday morning at the state Capitol to talk about the plan which was introduced last month.
The work would take place on the Crooked Creek interchange, Exit 39, to east of the Nitro interchange at Exit 45, which is about four miles.
“It’s one of our biggest congestion points in the state of West Virginia,” Mattox told Senator Chris Walters (R-Putnam, 08). “We need to build a bridge adjacent to the existing truss bridge there.”
The state Division of Highways has been hosting informational meetings over the last several weeks about possibly making a toll bridge. Currently, the four-lane area is sandwiched in between six-lane areas, which causes congestion.
The new bridge would be adjacent to the bridge that connects Nitro to St. Albans. There will be three travel lanes and one auxiliary lane.
“If there was public support, that is a road that we possibly could do that project with tolls being a part of the financial plan to pay for that project,” Mattox said.
Since traffic is a major issue at that section of the interstate, Mattox said implementing a toll should not be a problem.
“There’s not too many places in West Virginia where a toll road would actually make sense,” he said. “Unfortunately, our traffic counts or the rate of the tolls would be too much for the public to bear when there’s not enough traffic to justify making it a toll road.”
When the project was introduced in May, state DOH officials predicted work to begin in Spring 2017.