CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Stephen Todd Rumbaugh gave a presentation on the department’s annual report to state lawmakers Monday afternoon, ahead of the regular 60-day legislative session.
Rumbaugh highlighted key elements of the Department of Transportation, including Parkways, Multimodal, the Division of Highways and the Division of Motor Vehicles, and also provided an update on the department’s budget and operations.
Rumbaugh said 93% of the core plan was met across all districts. He also shared statistics, including mowing more than 67,000 miles, 353 acres of canopy cutting, 496 bridge repairs, ditching more than 9,600 miles, patching over 25,000 miles, installing more than 8,300 pipes, stabilizing 15,000 miles, and patching over 400,000 potholes.
He said the department improved communication during incidents on the parkways through real-time updates and coordinated efforts with the Division of Highways and the West Virginia State Police. The improvements came after heavy rain on June 27, 2025, caused a mudslide that left thousands of motorists stranded along the West Virginia Turnpike for eight hours without knowing what was happening. Officials determined the mudslide had blocked a storm drain, flooding the northbound lanes.
A major topic he discussed was progress on DOT projects, starting with the Corridor H project. The project is a new, approximately 7.2-mile, four-lane divided highway extending from Interstate 79 in Weston to the Virginia state line.
Rumbaugh told lawmakers that the last inspection from Wardensville to the Virginia state line has been completed and the project should be going out for construction soon.
“The environmental assessment and the FONSI, that’s the finding of no significant impact, for the Wardensville was completed and the construction is to be advertised later on this month,” he said.
Construction on the Wardensville project, from just west of Squirrel Gap Road to Waites Run Road in Wardensville, is expected to begin this spring and be completed in 2030. The next section is expected to go up for bid in fall 2026.
He also said that designs for the Harmony Grove interchange and the initial design for the Highlands interchange are proceeding nicely, along with a construction project on the WV Tech campus corridor to improve safety.
Another significant update was the budget. Rumbaugh said the highways budget is currently 50% expended, which is on track.
“Which is where we pretty well should be and we have a summary of the general fund surplus, at this point 85 percent of the jobs are complete, everything has been programmed and handed out and the expenses are being paid,” he said.
He also stated that the DMV has expended $27.7 million, and Multimodal has expended $1.8 million.
Sen. Robbie Morris told Rumbaugh that during their finance update Monday, they were informed that state road funds are holding steady while costs continue to rise. Morris asked Rumbaugh what the department’s plans are to address the issue.
Rumbaugh said this is typical, but the department does everything it can to stretch the dollars without compromising safety or other priorities.
“We’re looking at everything, we have a lot of efficiency programs going on, looking at a lot of different things and reorganizing, trying to do things better, to be more efficient, use more technology,” he said. “We’re looking at everything we do to try to find better ways to, as they say skin that cat, to make it better, stretch the dollars further.”
Another lawmaker asked what Rumbaugh and the department needed from the Legislature. Rumbaugh said the department could always use help with funding, even though the numbers look good.
“Funding is always the greatest needs from you all, having enough funds to do everything that we need, we do not have , funding will allow us to pay more in, get more equipment, do more work. Funding’s the number one thing that we need,” he said.