We have four big reasons to get on with highway infrastructure in southern West Virginia.
The Boy Scouts are coming.
A new federal prison is nearly complete.
Traffic is a problem.
And President Obama, in his recent jobs speech, said his plan includes spending some $50 billion in additional funds on transportation infrastructure programs, with the goal of obligating that money to specific projects within the next year.
Our state highway officials and legislative representatives ought to be waving their hands like school children, jumping and shouting, “We’ll take some more of that, please, Mr. President.”
Earlier this year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act set aside $48 billion for the Department of Transportation to spend. Most of it goes into highway and bridge projects, plus airport repairs and yet-to-be-awarded funds for high-speed passenger rail and grants for projects of special importance. DOT has so far paid out less than $7 billion but has obligated over $31 billion.
Some of that is helping to make possible a $32 million project to extend the East Beckley bypass — part of the Z-Way — to Stanaford Road. At present it runs from I-64 near Raleigh County Memorial Airport just a few miles to the Grey Flats area near the YMCA sports complex.
Obama said that among his new proposals “we’re proposing a boost in investment in the nation’s infrastructure beyond what was included in the Recovery Act, to continue modernizing our transportation and communications networks.”
Now is the time to get another segment of the Z-Way finished, particularly continuing the East Beckley bypass toward Ragland Road, and to build another section of the Coalfields Expressway.
The Boy Scouts of America are developing 10,000 acres in the Glen Jean-Mount Hope area for its National Scouting Center and high adventure base. Additionally, the organization plans to make the New River Gorge region home to the its National Jamboree, beginning in 2013 and returning every four years.
We can expect some 40,000 Boy Scouts for the jamboree, plus the thousands of additional visitors the event will generate. And all of them are more than welcome here to experience the best of wild, wonderful West Virginia.
What we don’t want them to have to experience is the traffic nightmare that typically exists between the current end of the East Beckley bypass and Bradley — the very route those who arrive at our airport would currently have to take to reach their Jamboree destination.
Wyoming County is relying on the Coalfields Expressway to open up new and exciting development opportunities, along with easy access to a new federal prison.
We must take advantage of any opportunity for additional funding, and we must do so quickly. Our elected leaders must keep trumpeting our cause, every single day. That’s the only way progress will be made in upgrading our transportation system in southern West Virginia.