KEYSER - West Virginia's roads, bridges and highways face serious challenges and the West Virginians for Better Transportation want people to know that and begin a dialogue that may help to solve the dilemma.
Pat Parsons of the West Virginia Contractors Association and founding member of West Virginians for Better Transportation spoke to the Keyser Rotary Club recently. He said that WVBT is an education-based organization that does not lobby or campaign politically but focuses on four main objectives:
* Inform public leaders and the general public about the status of the state's transportation system, its funding levels and the magnitude of transportation needs.
* Generate public knowledge of and interest in maintaining and expanding a safe, productive and reliable transportation infrastructure in the state, primarily as it relates to roads, bridges and highways.
* Increase public understanding and support for economic and business development benefits of the system.
* Help to gather public support for measures needed to maintain a system that meets the growth trends of the state.
He said that since the construction of the interstate system, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, people have tended to take roads for granted. But things can happen, Parsons said, citing the collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minnesota earlier this year and the Point Pleasant bridge in 1967. "West Virginia's bridges have been inspected, and they are safe," he said.
But he also said 37 percent of the state's bridges are deficient and the age of the interstate bridges at 34 years is approaching their life span. "Twenty-seven percent of the state's major roads are in poor to mediocre condition," he said. "And 67 percent of them are 10 feet wide or less."
Parsons said that when the interstates were constructed, no one imagined the volume of traffic that they would carry some day.
He said West Virginia is one of only four states that is responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and highways. Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina are the others. He said fatality rates on West Virginia roads are 50 percent above the national average. West Virginia's roads system is the sixth largest in the country, with 38,000 miles of roads, 20,000 of which are paved.
"We need long-term innovative plans for funding," he said. Parsons said that current levels of funding are inadequate and the price of materials and goods is increasing, as is the demand for improvements. "The state has $350 million to maintain roads," he said. "There is a list of some 170 projects at an estimated cost of $20 billion. Only about 8 percent of those projects are scheduled to be funded over the next six years."
Revenue sources include the federal motor fuel tax, state gasoline tax, privilege tax, motor vehicle registration fees and driver's license and permit fees. He said other states are considering options such as a local tax to fund specific projects. "Pennsylvania has toll roads," he said.
Others include public/private partnerships to construct roads, leasing roads and highways, and in the far west, a state is looking at a GPS road- use tax.
West Virginia Division of Highways District Engineer Robert Amtower told the Rotarians that the public needs to decide what it wants.
"People are not going to be able to continue to look at the DOH as it being their job to take care of the roads," he said. "We are already seeing some of the problems from the lack of funding." One of those is the paving cycle, which should be every 15 years and is now from 30 to 40 years. "Mineral Street (in Keyser), for example, was last paved in 1990," he said.