SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The South Charleston area of the Kanawha Valley continues to be a site of ongoing construction and development.
South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens said on 580 Live Monday morning that he believes the most recent developments within the ongoing Jefferson Road Project that’s reconfiguring the road between U.S. Route 119 and U.S. Route 60 from Corridor G to MacCorkle Avenue is going well despite coming with a little bit of a learning curve for drivers.
These new developments on the major project came last week when the Division of Highways were able to open another lane on the new bridge over Trace Fork– which now includes a north and southbound lane open to traffic– and the opening of a portion of the new roundabout on Kanawha Turnpike.
Mullens said he believes these new developments on the project are going rather well considering the novelty of how large scale they are in this area as well as the circumstances surrounding the ongoing construction still left underway.
“I know there’s some, what I call, unavoidable inconveniences, when you’re doing a major project like this, but I think overall, I gotta give kudos to the Highways and Kokosing, I think for being in one of the highest traffic counts in the state of West Virginia, they’ve done a pretty good job,” Mullens said.
According to the project’s website, the 1.7 mile strip of Jefferson Road will be widened to five lanes, a new roundabout will be added at Kanawha Turnpike, and a new overpass bridge will be built spanning over Pennsylvania Avenue, CSX Railroad, Davis Creek, and the Kanawha Turnpike.
The project began in 2019 under former Governor Jim Justice’s Road to Prosperity Initiative. Kokosing Construction Company is working closely with the DOH to head up the $46.8 million project.
Mullens said while roundabouts are more commonplace in other states as well as up in the northern areas of this state, it’s a completely new concept around here and is already proving to be somewhat of a learning curve for drivers.
However, he believes it is also proving to be very effective so far in alleviating such a notably congested area.
“They allow for continuous flow of traffic, which is really what we needed in that area, continuous flow of traffic, not a lot of starting and stopping,” he said. “I know people say that traffic still backs up, and it does, but remember, we’re not done yet either, there’s some lanes that still need to be open, I think it has improved the traffic flow.”
Right now, drivers are still seeing some backups in that area during high traffic times of the day, but Mullens said once all lanes get open, he believes they will see a significant difference.
Mullens said he has been told the overall project will be complete by late summer early fall, but that remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the new Park Place Plaza shopping center coming in along MacCorkle Avenue through South Charleston is continuing to make some more progress.
After the opening of Starbucks and Chick-fil-a within the developing 500,000 square foot future shopping center last year, Mullens said that a Kroger Marketplace will be the next new tenant to be making its way in.
A ground breaking ceremony is set to be held on the incoming Kroger Marketplace next week on Wednesday, July 30 with construction starting a few days prior.
Mullens said while construction on that would have probably started a couple of months ago if the weather would have been more cooperative, the site is ready go now.
“Everything’s done, we’re just waiting for Mother Nature and saying hey, can we drive a truck over without sinking and once that happens, you’ll see construction start,” Mullens said. “That’s going to be a really, really big deal for us and for the Valley as a whole.”
Mullens said this will be the first Kroger Marketplace to come to West Virginia.
He said they are considered to be more upscale and bigger than your average Kroger store.
“I call it like a Kroger on steroids, they sell more than just groceries, it’s almost like a mini Walmart,” he said. “Obviously, a very high percentage is tilted still to groceries, it’s a grocery store, right, but they do sell other products.”
In comparison, he said the Kroger currently at Riverwalk Plaza is approximately 50,000 square feet, and this one will be 120,000 square feet.
Following Kroger’s arrival, Mullens said the next new tenant to come to Park Place after that will be Mission BBQ, a restaurant franchise owned by a group of veterans.
Menards, Chipotle, and a Sketchers Outlet are a few others expected to make their way into the developing shopping center.
Mullens said downtown, construction is also underway on an Andrew’s Boots store, a work boot and work apparel store.
He said they are proud to say they are developing a nice variety of businesses in South Charleston.
“Downtown’s going well, a mixture of small businesses of restaurants, attorneys, real estate people, throw in a few eateries and you have a nice downtown,” Mullens said. “That was always our goal and I think we’re getting there.”:
He said plans are also underway to eventually build a new South Charleston Community Center.