MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Motorists have become all too familiar with road work on I-79 between Morgantown and the Pennsylvania state line, and the latest restriction could end by Friday evening.
DOH District 4 Supervisor Darby Clayton described the contract to do the work as a design-build type project. The contractor has the latitude to design pavement cross sections, but they must last for the specified 9-year warranty period.
“We didn’t tell him what he had to do, we should told him what we wanted him to do,” Clayton said.
The current closure has to do with repair work from the original project on bridge approaches, Clayton said.
“The quality of work we got from the contractor wasn’t acceptable to us, so we had to go out and mill, even repave some of them,” he said.
Bridgeport-based Bear Contracting is the DOH contractor for the project. Clayton said the ride on that section, which was taken down to the base and rebuilt, must be smoother.
“The overall ride of the project is not what we would like it to be so we’re working with the contractor to improve that. It would ride quality issue right now,” Clayton said.