QUEEN SHOALS, W.Va. — The road in West Virginia that arguably received the most damage in the devastating June 23 flood has reopened.
Repairs were completed this week on Valley View Drive in parts of Clay and Kanawha counties, the state Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
The force of the floodwaters destroyed four small bridges and the road’s base. Once the water went down engineers couldn’t tell where the road had been, according to state Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox.
“Our engineering staff had to go to Google Maps and look on Google Earth to put the road back in the position it needed to be in. After the flood you couldn’t tell where the road was,” Mattox said.
The Valley View project, which cost $3.9 million to repair, and several dozen others were part of emergency contracts awarded by the state Division of Highways in days after flood. Some of that work will continue into 2017, Mattox said.
The damage to West Virginia’s highways in the flood zone topped $55 million. The state is currently being reimbursed by FEMA at a 75/25 rate. Mattox is hopeful the federal government will increase that to 90/10 soon.
“If we can get the higher federal participation rate that is a good thing for the state Road Fund,” he said.
Valley View Drive goes from Queen Shoals to Lower Valley View in Kanawha County. The other section is in Clay County.
Turman was the contractor on the job.