Late last week, West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox conducted a briefing in Putnam County that was presented to the public and the media as being an informational update on the progress of construction on U.S. 35.
This road project, running from Henderson in Mason County to Interstate 64 in Putnam County, along with Route 9 in the Eastern Panhandle, sits at the top of the priority list for new highway construction in West Virginia, and many sections are well on the way toward completion.
Even so, an additional $200 million will be required to finish the final 13 miles of work, and we once again heard Mattox say, “We’re open to anything and everything,” when it comes to scripting a funding solution.
Here’s our translation of Mattox’s statement. “We don’t have the vast majority of the money and the only real viable solution is making it a toll road.”
Toll roads are something we in southern West Virginia are used to, and while highway projects like the Coalfields Expressway, King Coal Highway and Z-Way are almost certain to have tolls attached to them if they are ever to be finished, the rest of our state isn’t used to paying tolls.
NEWS FLASH — it will have to get that way.
Taxes in West Virginia, no matter how high they are and how they are allocated, won’t even come close to funding even a small part of new highway needs, let alone the growing problem of finding money for maintenance of existing roads and bridges.
Gov. Joe Manchin said a few short weeks ago no decision had yet been made on raising tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike, that more information needed to be gathered. Forget that too; our crystal ball says it’s just a matter of time.
Tolls on roads are the future in West Virginia. It’s not a pleasant piece of information, but it’s a reality that we will have to live with no matter who is running the show.
Anything different will seriously compromise our already strained roads system.