NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. — State Senator Charlie Clements has called the announcement of expansion to Route 2 in Wetzel and Marshall counites an important project that will attract industry.
Following an announcement last week of a $10 million DOT Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant, Clements, R-Wetzel, spoke with MetroNews and said this will be enough to acquire crucial land to attract development.
Clements said those in the Ohio Valley area have been working on the expansion of Route 2 since the ’90s in an attempt to make it a four-lane highway from Chester to Parkersburg.
The grant will help construct a new route for a 5-mile stretch of Route 2 between the towns of Proctor and Kent, making it four lanes and realigning it to be more on the hillside.
“We are sitting on the verge of one of the biggest economic booms in the Ohio Valley in years,” Clements said. “Hopefully with the cracker plant coming to Dilles Bottom (Ohio) that we will see a rebirth of the petrochemical industry here in West Virginia and around the Ohio Valley.”
“It’s a very good economic boost to our area. It’s been needed for a long time.”
Route 2 is at four lanes currently from the east side of Wheeling tunnel to Franklin and then back to two lanes from Franklin to Proctor.
Clements said the projects that will be worked on will allow for Route 2 to almost be four lanes in the 40-mile stretch from New Martinsville to Wheeling, which is something that will attract industry.
“It’s an important road especially because of this gas development,” he said. “The number of big trucks on this road, I never would have envisioned this 15 years ago that we’d have this much heavy truck traffic running up and down the Ohio Valley.”
The new route will move the route to the hillside and align it with Route 29 in Wetzel and Marshall counties. Moundsville in Marshall County could potentially be right across the river from the proposed Dilles Bottom cracker plant.
Clements said the complete expansion of Route 2 has not only been talked about by community leaders like himself but mostly all citizens in Marshall and Wetzel Counties.
Chatter even remains for the Route 2/Interstate 68 expansion project.
“The only questions I have from people is ‘What is holding this up? I thought we would be getting started,'” Clements said of the announced Route 2 expansion.
“The general public, which there is always some people not in favor of it for one reason or another, believe this is one of the most important pieces of highway that we can build in this state right now.”