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Publication: MetroNews
Release Date: 11/10/2009
One group is looking at the current and future needs of West Virginia's transportation system and different ways to fund those needs.
Those with West Virginians for Better Transportation were part of the 2009 West Virginia Transportation Conference Tuesday in Raleigh County.
"While we don't expect any real solutions to come out of this, we hope to begin to lay the ground work for a deep understanding on the part of everyone of the need to properly fund transportation in West Virginia," says West Virginians for Better Transportation Chair Joe Deneault.
Governor Joe Manchin, Third District Congressman Nick Rahall, Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox and leaders of both the state Senate and the state House of Delegates spoke at Tuesday's conference.
Deneault says state leaders seem to understand the need to find other ways to pay for road construction and maintenance.
"It's a long ways from having that understanding to it actually happening. To begin the discussion, to begin the debate, that's really the goal of West Virginians for Better Transportation."
A recent study estimated West Virginia will face a transportation funding shortfall of $5 billion over the next ten years.
Already, the Division of Highways is struggling to keep up with the ongoing maintenance of existing roads, bridges and highways. So far this year, collections for the state Road Fund, the fund that pays for road construction and maintenance, are $11 million below projections.
"Those projections weren't very adequate to begin with, so I guess my point is that we're going to be diminishing what is already a very, very small budget for maintenance of our roads which will effect every West Virginian," Deneault says.
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