Next to a four-lane road that stretches to the horizon, large green exit signs for Pierpont Road herald what is to come on the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Within a few years, the highway will no longer be a dead-end patch of pavement with a gap on both ends, state Department of Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox said Thursday. It will be a thriving 65-mile link between Monongalia County and Pittsburgh that will bring economic development in its wake.
“Although West Virginia has only four miles in our borders, it is an expensive four miles,” Mattox said. “But when you look at the potential it will bring to the area, it is well worth the investment.”
He visited the construction site at the Mon-Fayette to talk about some of the projects the Division of Highways is working on across the state.
The Mon-Fayette Expressway will cover four miles within West Virginia, starting from an interchange with Interstate 68 and going north to the border of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania section will go from there to the Southern Beltway near Pittsburgh.
Several parts of the expressway have been complete for more than four years, including a four- lane road from the Pennsylvania state line south to Morgans Run, and another section across the stream, approaching I-68.
Workers are now building a bridge over Morgans Run to connect the two sections and a system of roads that will connect the Cheat Lake area to the expressway. The bridge is expected to be completed by the fall of 2009, according to a timeline provided by the DOH, and the road will be partially accessible by 2010.
Yet to come, however, is the interchange between I-68 and the Mon-Fayette. That part of the project is not set to begin until 2013, Mattox said.
He said that the Mon-Fayette Expressway is a major part of the division’s budget for the next few years and a significant investment in the state’s infrastructure.
But he said that money will be hard to come by for new projects in the future because of high construction costs and flat revenue. The state has had to use a larger portion of its state road funds to maintain existing roads, rather than building new ones.
Mattox said he doesn’t expect any new taxes to raise revenue for roads, however. He said the state has begun private-public partnerships to reduce the cost to the state of new road projects and is looking for other cost-cutting measures.
“We’re looking at finding other ways to fund road projects,” Mattox said.
The state’s road money crunch is one of the reasons that Monongalia County is considering a $2 weekly service fee to pay for new road construction, said County Commission President Bob Bell.
The Greater Morgantown Metropolitan Planning Organization projected last year, in its transportation plan, that the area would receive about $233 million in total funding for road projects in the next 25 years. But the state DOH recently told the MPO it is more likely to receive only about $75 million in that period.
Bell asked Mattox at the event Thursday whether the state will reduce money coming to Monongalia County if it passes the service fee. Mattox assured Bell that none of the county’s road funds will be reduced because of the service fee.
“I just wanted to make sure it came from the horse’s mouth that Monongalia County will not lose money, if we’re fortunate enough to pass a user fee,” Bell said. “We know they don’t have any money for road funding, and we’re going to have to help ourselves.”
Mattox also talked about the state’s efforts to improve road maintenance and maintain bridges. He said the state has stepped up inspections of bridges and is making sure the grass is mowed, potholes are filled and drainage issues dealt with along all of the state’s highways.
The DOH is also making sure there are enough truck drivers to plow snow during the winter, said Greg Phillips, district manager for the DOH Division Four, which covers Monongalia County. The DOH has set up a program to hire retired drivers who can come in for the season, and is working on increasing salaries for qualified drivers. Overall, Philips said, the DOH should be set for the coming winter.
“We’ve got to be more competitive with salaries,” Phillips said. “We certainly are doing the best job we can with the people we have.”