According to John G. Morgan’s book, West Virginia Governors, when the state’s first chief executive, Arthur Boreman, took office in 1863, he said collections on toll roads and maintenance of highways were among his top priorities.
Okey Patteson, the state’s 23rd Governor, during his 15-minute inaugural speech, pledged better roads. Morgan reported that in Arch Moore’s first term (1969-1973), “Highway construction contracts reached the record-breaking amount of approximately $4 billion.”
And now Governor Jim Justice has made road improvements a priority with passage of a $1.6 billion dollar road bond and by pushing the state Division of Highways to speed up efforts to make up for years of deferred or neglected maintenance.
Governor’s come and go, and priorities shift over time, but the issue of roads has always been with us.
Wednesday, Governor Justice and Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston unveiled this season’s highway paving program, and not a moment too soon. The winter weather, combined with the massive time and expense necessary to keep up with 35,000 miles of roads and hundreds of bridges, have left our state’s critical infrastructure punctured and pitted.
Highways has posted details of this year’s core maintenance plan on its website. It includes 709 miles of new paving along with 689 miles of ongoing paving projects, and 170 new bridge projects combined with 164 ongoing bridge repairs. The state also plans thousands of miles of drainage ditching, patching and slide repairs.
Highways has created a helpful interactive website where you can identify planned road projects and when the work is scheduled. The highways site also includes a form to report needed road repairs through the SWAT Program (Safety With Action Today).
Justice admitted fixing West Virginia’s roads is a massive and unending challenge. “You can’t build them all back day one,” Justice said. “Can we do more? Of course we can do more. We need to pump as much money as we possibly can into making our infrastructure better.”
And more money is coming.
The infrastructure bill passed by Congress earlier this year includes about $3 billion for road and bridge work in West Virginia. However, Wriston said the state is just now starting to receive the money and learning how the federal dollars can be spent, meaning the road work projects identified Wednesday will grow.
“Every number we told you today is only going to be better,” Wriston said.
But the road to better roads is long. “We’re never going to have enough money,” he said. “I could give you a list of $30 billion of projects today. The infrastructure program for roads and bridges is three billion.”
Justice deserves credit for prioritizing roads and Wriston brings tireless enthusiasm to the job. However, fixing, paving and building roads is a never ending job. For every finished project, ten or more remain.
It is risky to predict what issues will face West Virginia in the future, but it is a safe bet that for years to come our Governors will be trying to fix the roads.
#FTDR (Fix the damn roads.)