SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An efficient design with efficient funding is what acting Commissioner of Highways Jimmy Wriston called the Jefferson Road Project on Friday.
Wriston, along with Gov. Jim Justice, state lawmakers, and South Charleston city officials announced Friday at the South Charleston Community Center, the details of the long-awaited project that includes more federal aid than expected.
A total of $46.8 million has been awarded through regular federal aid funding for the project that is designed to alleviate traffic issues on Jefferson Road between MacCorkle Avenue and Corridor G, U.S. 119.
“We are glad to see it happen,” Cpt. PC Rader with the South Charleston Police Department said Friday viewing the designs. “The governor mentioned the congestion, it’s been like that for years and it is getting worse. It’s been needed for a long time.
“It’s going to benefit everybody, all the way around.”
Included in the project that Wriston said would start within 60 days, is an overpass bridge over the railroad tracks where Jefferson Road intersects with Kanawha Turnpike.
Below the overpass will be a roundabout which will eliminate the existing stoplight at that intersection.
With the project, Jefferson Road will move from 4-lane road to a 5-lane road.
“The flyover that will keep you sitting at that railroad track,” Wriston said of the features to the project. “The modern roundabout that will keep that traffic moving and help with congestion, and all the safety features involved in the project, including the widening.
“It’s a really great day for the Kanawha Valley.”
Rader said he believes the congestion started on Jefferson Road with the shopping centers developments at Corridor G and Trace Fork Road.
“It’s a destination now,” Rader said of the shopping centers. “This is the main way that people will get to Southridge and Track Fork, is off Jefferson Road. The valley has just outgrown the two-lane roadway that Jefferson Road is.”
When the project is finished at its estimated completion date of December 2022, a shopping plaza could be built in South Charleston.
The city plans to use excess dirt to fill fly ash pond along MacCorkle Avenue, allowing for construction to happen.
Within the last year, dozens of home in South Charleston near Jefferson Road were bought by the state and boarded up. When the work begins on the project, those houses will be torn down for the expansion.
“I think now that they boarded up the houses, I think people are expecting the work to start soon,” Charleston resident Linda Tony said the presser Friday. “We want to see how it is going to progress.”
When Tony was asked if the orange barrels and construction delays will be worth it in the long run, she had a strong answer.
“Oh absolutely, I think it’ll be wonderful,” she said.
“I have sat for as long as 20 minutes and it is slow there. It does affect the time that I normally come down this way because of that traffic.”
The contract to the project was awarded to Kokosing Construction Company as officials believe the houses boarded up will be torn down this summer and dirt will move.
The project is not associated with the governor’s Roads to Prosperity program.
“This is truly a giant step toward getting this project on the move once and for all,” Gov. Justice said. “I’m so happy to help push this much-needed project across the finish line because it is going to make our people safer and boost our economy in this area all at the same time.”