Like any good neighbor, West Virginia’s Division of Highways is trying to keep up with its mowing.
Joe Pack, chief engineer for the agency, told lawmakers that West Virginia has mowed more than 44,000 miles this year.
Pack told members of the Oversight Commission on Department of Transportation Accountability that the highways agency aims to do even better.
Of a recent allocation from annual state surplus to be used for equipment, Pack said, the agency prioritized purchasing 107 tractors with mowing decks.
“As well as we’re doing with ditching, patching, paving and stabilizing gravel roads, we recognize that our mowing could be better, so we identified the issue there, especially related to the equipment,” he said.
“We’re putting the focus on that so that next spring we can be ready to start on day one that the grass needs cut and we’re out there and we’re on schedule so we’re not rushing at the end of the year.”
Jimmy Wriston, the state transportation secretary, was originally scheduled to speak to the committee during legislative interim meetings. But the chairs of the committee said Wriston was unavailable today so Pack stepped in.
Lawmakers are often interested in updates about road conditions because that’s the kind of tangible question they often receive from constituents in their districts.
So Pack led with ditching, which helps with water runoff from roads.
“So far this year we have completed ditching operations,” Pack said, “which is ditches include cleaning ditch lines but all the draining that’s associated — for over 7,200 miles of roadways. Our distribution is one-third per year, and we are close to the 9,000 miles scheduled that we set up back in the winter.”
A pothole patching challenge, he said, was completed by Memorial Day in 53 counties and the other two counties were completed by the next week.
Gravel roads have been stabilized for more than 9,000 miles of the total 15,000 in the state, he said.
“We’ve paved over 500 miles of roadway, repaired 118 embankment failures or slips,” he said.
Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, outlined a concept of taking one or more high maintenance corridors, identifying how much money is currently being spent there and cooperating with local private interests to improve upkeep.
“Let us take those dollars, let us go out and raise the other dollars, let us put out a (request for proposal) for a paving company or a construction company and let us put a menu of items together: We want potholes repaired every 30 days, we want the grass cut twice a week not twice a summer, we want brine sprayed before the snow.
“Let us take over a corridor like that and allow your diminished staff to work in the other areas. Is that the type of concept that you might be willing to work with us on, maybe overseen by our county commission or some entity that could carry out something like this?”
Pack responded by suggesting the best path is a realistic assessment of plans and schedules. He also suggested tasks should be shuffled so they’re not just on repeat.
“We’re going to use every resource we have,” Pack said, “and we’re going to use every opportunity we have to get better.”