Legislature passes bills to

devote $150M to road projects;

Mon & Preston will see 31
projects totaling $8.8M
by David Beard, The Dominion Post,  June 7, 2021
 

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw reviews a vote count with Clerk Steve Harrison; the electronic vote tally board on the right is out of
order and black where it would typically have the delegates' names in lights. Perry Bennett/WV Legislative Photography
MORGANTOWN – The Legislature passed two bills during Monday’s brief
special session to appropriate $150 million of Fiscal Year 2021 surplus funds for
Division of Highways maintenance projects in all 55 counties.
Gov. Jim Justice announced the plan last week and included it in his special
session call along with some bills to appropriate federal American Rescue Plan
funds dedicated to the Department of Health and Human Resources and the
Department of Education.

Statewide, the money will pay for 402 projects: paving 482.84 miles, repairing 17
slips and slides and 40 bridges, and 111 other projects.

Locally, Monongalia County will get $4,241,550, Preston will get $4,601,700 and
Marion will get $2,088,400.

The special session was sandwiched between interim meetings, and the Joint
Finance Committee met before the session to discuss the governor’s plan, which
came to him from the Division of Highways.

Transportation Secretary Byrd White told the committee all the projects were on
the DOH long-term plan and the money will accelerate their completion. They
chose projects that can be completed in the coming fiscal year, which starts July
1.

He contradicted Justice’ statement last week that some of the projects will fill
potholes. He and Deputy Highways Commissioner Jimmy Wriston said the
paving projects will put new surface on roads that have been repaired and are
ready for paving.

The two bills to appropriate the money and get it to DOH were HB 101 and 102
and the House took them up first, suspending its rules requiring bills to be read
on three separate days in order to handle them in one sitting.

HB 101 garnered a small bit of opposition, apparently all from Republicans.

Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, said the DOH has road money coming in
from various sources, including Roads to Prosperity. “We’ve got an awful lot of
money going towards our roads. … I think that we need to continue to improve
the roads and I think we need to do it thoughtfully.”
There are other places that surplus money could be used, he said, that would
align with legislators’ pledge last session to give taxpayers some relief.

Delegate Dana Ferrell, R-Kanawha, complained that money was coming to his
county but not to his legislative district. He couldn’t vote for a bill, he said, where
he and his constituents had no say on and will get no benefit from.

Delegate Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, supported the bill and the idea of expediting
projects. “When these things can be caught early and repaired early they can be
fixed for a fracion of the cost that it does when they’re left to stabilize,” he said.

Projects delayed just keep getting worse, he said, and he’s always been an
advocate for acting proactively. Also, this will open up money for other
maintenance projects on the DOH waiting list.

The House electronic voting system went down just before the vote on the bill
was conducted and the vote had to be done by voice roll call. It passed 91-5 with
four Delegates absent but the electronic record of who voted no was no
available.

The passage of HB 101 made opposition to its companion, HB 102, futile and it
passed 96-0, also in a voice roll call.

The Senate took up both bills a little later and passed them 29-0 with no
discussion.

Mon County is slated for 10 projects. The most expensive will be a bridge
expansion joint replacement on the Cpl. Thomas Bennett Memorial Bridge at I-79
mile marker 149, estimated at $1.7 million. U.S. 19 from Mon County 41, Indian
Creek, to Westover will receive 5.2 miles of resurfacing at a cost of $728,000.
Rounding out the top three, Halleck Road from Mon County 83 to W.Va. 73 will
see 6.44 miles of resurfacing for $708,000.
Preston has 21 projects slated. Aurora Pike will get 4.04 miles of resurfacing for
$606,000 and another 4.55 miles resurfaced for $523,250 George Washington
Highway will get a slip repair starting at milepost 18.98 for $500,000.

Marion County has six projects on the list. U.S. 250 will get 7.66 miles resurfaced
for $880,900 and Pleasant Valley Road will have 2.34 miles resurfaced for
$430,000.

Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, commented in an email

conversation, “Some of the projects in Mon are roads I’ve driven on or gotten
phone calls about recently and they are terrible. Although we can’t do everything
with $150 million, it is good that some of these awful roads in our county are
being done.”