HURRICANE, W.Va. — The West Virginia Division of Highways held Monday its first of two meetings regarding the reconstruction of 14 miles of Interstate 64.
Crews will begin April 8 on the $47 million project affecting the stretch of the interstate between exit 28 to Milton and around where the interstate goes over Rocky Step Road. Work will include removing the existing asphalt, the rubblization of the underlying layer of concrete and putting down a new layer of asphalt.
The full project, the first of the Roads to Prosperity program, is expected to take a year and a half, and include different traffic control phasing to allow construction to happen and traffic to continue.
The first phase of construction between Milton and Hurricane will call for one lane in both directions to be closed as related work is conducted in the second lane. Traffic and work will switch lanes when appropriate.T he other two phases will involve shifting three lanes of traffic to one side of the interstate, with two lanes going in one direction and the third going the opposite. The two closest lanes going in opposite directions will be divided by a temporary barrier.
“You work around traffic,” said Gary Mullins, District One construction engineer for the highways division.
Traffic control has not yet been determined for work between Teays Valley and the bridge of Rocky Step Road.
Mullins said because of the traffic changes, it is important for drivers to pay attention so they do not cause any additional traffic headaches.
“Watch out for each other, slow down in the work zone, watch for a lot of traffic entering and exiting the work zone,” he said. “Anytime you are paving the road, there’s a lot of asphalt trucks that come in and out, so they’ll be a lot of slow traffic entering and exiting the interstate.”
A second public meeting on the project will be held Thursday at Milton Middle School between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.