West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox has proposed a $1 billion to $1.5 billion road bond that would finance 17 different highway projects across the Mountain State, including a usable segment of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County.
However, there is one big catch. The bond would have to be approved by voters.
And before voters can even have a say on such a long-term bond issue, lawmakers in Charleston must agree to place the actual bond issue on the ballot this year. Mattox asked lawmakers last week during a joint legislative public hearing on infrastructure to consider placing the bond issue on the ballot. He said the 30-year state transportation bond would help jump-start 17 major highway projects in the state that have been stalled, including the King Coal Highway and the Coalfields Expressway.
As currently proposed by Mattox, the bond would allocate about $66 million toward the completion of a useable segment of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County, extending the local Interstate 73/74/75 corridor from the existing twin interstate bridges at Stoney Ridge to Route 123, near the Mercer County Airport. It would also finance the completion of a section of the Coalfields Expressway in southern West Virginia from the Raleigh County line to Mullins in Wyoming County.
The bond would also fund projects such as the Beckley Z-Way, Corridor H in the north central part of the state; a section of the New River Parkway in Summers and Raleigh counties, a new bridge over the Ohio River at Wellsburg, a bypass road around Berkeley Springs in Morgan County and a small section of the Tolsia Highway in Wayne County.
Essentially, funding is proposed for road projects across the state, making such a bond issue more attractive to voters on a statewide level. It’s also interesting to note that voters in the Mountain State have agreed to at least seven road bond amendments since 1920.
Mattox correctly argues that such a long-term bond referendum would be the state’s best chance to fund the stalled road projects. After all, federal funding for such projects has all but dried up in recent years — thanks, in part, to the inability of a Congress to pass a new long-term transportation funding bill.
For his part, Mike Mitchem, the executive director of the King Coal Highway Authority, is hopeful that lawmakers will advance the proposed bond to the election ballot.
“The voters would have to approve the billion-dollar bond, and it would be nice to get that,” Mitchem said last week. “We need between $66 million and $70 million to complete the range (of the local interstate corridor) from Kee Dam (to Route 123).”
Mattox’s proposal is a good idea, and lawmakers should be willing to place this bond issue on the ballot. By doing so, lawmakers would simply be giving voters in the Mountain State a chance to say either “yea” or “nay” on a 30-year transportation bond.
Voters should be allowed to make that choice.