CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Deputy Highways Commissioner Jimmy Wriston said the backlog of highway construction projects is getting better but it’s still not where it should be.
Wriston told state lawmakers recently a task force the DOH formed with contractors to address slow-moving projects has helped. Wriston said the task force was formed after some projects being funded by federal highway dollars fell behind schedule.
“We’re just insisting that we need completion dates met from the construction industry,” Wriston said. “The FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) requires us to keep our inactive projects to under two percent. We were climbing up into double-digits and we had to react. I’m happy to report that we did react.”
Wriston said they are moving in the right direction and the state is currently under the two percent of allowable inactive federally funded highway projects.
Gov. Jim Justice announced back on Friday the state’s plans for a Dec. 3 trip to Wall Street to sell $600 million in General Obligation bonds for a second round of Roads to Prosperity projects. A premium sale could bring the state as much as $730 million. Wriston told lawmakers there are plans to stagger putting the projects out to bid next year to give contractors a chance to catch their collective breath.
“We’ve overheated our own local contracting industry to the point where they’re crying uncle a little bit,” Wriston said. “Our plan is to kind of beat it like a drum all year long and not dump everything out there on the industry.”
Delegate Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said it was important to give local contractors a chance at the second round of bond projects.
“We want them to have that ability to go on so we’re not dumping this stuff out in the marketplace and we’re not allowing our local contractors the opportunity to pick up,” Criss said.
Wriston said it would probably take through next October to get all of the larger Roads to Prosperity projects out to bid but not all.
“You will see some right after the first of the year,” Wriston said.
The DOH has continued to battle manpower problems and Wriston said he’s not surprised that contractors are also impacted.
“Maybe there is some manpower shortages. We’ve experienced that with highways. We’ve had material shortages in different areas, aggregate and things like that and we’ve had equipment shortages,” Wriston said.