The manager of Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center believes building a new Interstate 64 interchange to serve the track would be the best way to ease traffic congestion in the Cross Lanes area.
"I know people at Cross Lanes have great concerns," said Tri-State General Manager Cathy Brackbill. "I know another ramp would ease their minds and make things a lot better for them."
Increased traffic congestion at Tri-State and West Virginia's three other tracks will be a real possibility if voters approve table games. Voters in Ohio and Jefferson counties will vote Saturday whether to allow table games at Wheeling Island and Charles Town, respectively. Voters in Hancock County will decide June 30 on table games at Mountaineer Race Track. Kanawha County residents will vote Aug. 11 on table games at Tri-State.
Increased congestion at the tracks would run head-on with a Division of Highways budget crunch.
A 2004 study by West Virginia University's Bureau of Business and Economic Research and subsequent reviews have reported the state Road Fund hasn't been keeping up with inflation. The studies say an increase in revenue is necessary to maintain the existing highway system. Division of Highways spokesman Brent Walker said it's a difficult situation.
Walker was asked how the division would prioritize projects that the state's tracks want. "The word I'm getting is, it's too premature to even figure that out," he said. "This kind of vote is something no one's seen before.
"Our message is, we would work with the developer, the folks responsible, and continue to figure that out," he said. "A lot of times those guys pay for those kinds of improvements.
"If you assume table games pass, you can assume discussions on a whole bunch of levels will take place," he said. "It's a win-win and we certainly feel a responsibility to the traveling public. I like to think we're going to try to help make access available. But issues need to be discussed. We just have to sort through it. All of it is important and we expect our role to be important. Figuring out just how we do that is a whole other story."
Brackbill agreed it's too early to figure out. "We probably need to win this election first, then complete our plans," she said. "Then you begin a construction process that takes 16 to 18 months. In the meantime, we can work with the Division of Highways to see if we can come up with a solution here that would meet everyone's needs."
Executives of Tri-State met with Division of Highways representatives several weeks ago, Brackbill said. The result was, the division agreed to do a traffic count to determine how much traffic is going to Cross Lanes, how much is going to the racetrack and how much is going to Nitro Marketplace. The traffic count will separate the three "and we'll see where we all stand," Brackbill said.
Tri-State last month unveiled a plan to spend from $250 million to $500 million to turn the racetrack into a destination resort. The plan includes adding 60,000 square feet of space to the existing 90,000-square-foot gaming area and constructing a 250-room hotel, a convention center, a 5,000-space parking garage and a 12,000-seat arena. The arena has since been scaled down to 6,500 seats.
Last month Tri-State said it had already received a call from a representative of a group that wants to bring 3,500 people to the track's proposed convention center.
Brackbill said the discussion with Division of Highways representatives didn't take up the issue of how much additional traffic the expansion might create. "We thought the starting point for everything would be to do an actual count find out where the traffic is coming from and what their destination is," she said.
"Hopefully the traffic count will give us some good solid information to go on," she said. "I think we'll better know our wish list after we see that. But no doubt, No. 1 on the wish list would be another ramp."
The Division of Highways already has a 170-project wish list. An interchange for Tri-State is not on it.
The only proposal on the state's list that would help Tri-State is No. 79 widening W.Va. 622 from three to five lanes from Interstate 64 to a point north of W.Va. 62. That 0.8-mile project would cost an estimated $19.2 million.
It is not known how much a new interchange would cost. The division built an interchange off Interstate 70 for Cabella's in 2005 that cost about $13 million.
The projects on the state's list are estimated to cost a total of $19.5 billion. The state now has no official sources of funding for most of the projects.
Tri-State isn't alone in its desire for highway improvements. Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort has lobbied for years for a new bridge across the Ohio River to improve access to its facilities. Tat proposal is currently No. 100 on the state's list. It would cost an estimated $50 million.
Two other projects on the state's list would aid Mountaineer Race Track. No. 45 is upgrading Route 2 from Follansbee to Chester a project that would cost an estimated $463.9 million. No. 48 is upgrading Route 2 from Wheeling to Follansbee at a cost of $489.5 million.