CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Division of Highways is touting an annual national road survey in which the state’s ranking rose from 33rd to 30th.
“We know that is an improvement with the highway system ranking, 30th as opposed to 33rd, certainly we’ll take that, it’s a bump up. But we also recognize we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of challenges,” said DOH Spokesman Brent Walker.
The ranking is put out by the Reason Foundation annually. Compared to the neighbors, West Virginia’s performance is better than Maryland and Pennsylvania but worse than Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. The state showed the most improvement in rural arterial pavement condition, moving from 45th to 36th and urban congestion, moving from 10th to fifth. However, the Mountain State remains 50th in the nation in its number of structurally deficient bridges.
“We still have our share of structurally deficient bridges, that doesn’t mean they’re unsafe, but it does mean they have some issues,” Walker added.
Walker said it’s the mission of the department to continue the upward trajectory and they expected it would rise in the coming years as well.
“It really is a function of prioritization, a vision, and I know when Governor Morrisey appointed Secretary Rumbaugh, the two shared a priority of getting back to the basics and preserving and maintaining what we have,” Walker added.
“That just goes to show what happens when you focus on maintaining your roads and bridges,” said Rumbaugh the state’s Transportation Secretary in a news release announcing the improved ranking. “Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Patrick Morrisey in allowing us to do that, we expect to see those numbers jump again next year.”
The improved ranking is from the most recent data which is 2023. U.S. Senator Jim Justice was Governor at that time. He put out a release to laud the improvement as well.
“This report, based on 2023 data, proves exactly what I said all along: the roads plan I laid out in my very first State of the State is continuing to deliver beyond what I could’ve ever imagined. We put real dollars behind our roads through Roads to Prosperity, made major investments in our secondary roads, provided a road maintenance equipment fleet, and so on. Now we’re seeing the payoff plain as day. Our foundation is rock-solid, and it’s driving real, lasting prosperity across our state,” said Justice in a statement about the Reason Foundation’s Survey.