PARKERSBURG — West Virginia’s roads are facing many maintenance challenges over the coming years, an official from West Virginians for Better Transportation told community leaders.
Pat Parsons, the executive director of the Asphalt Pavement Association of West Virginia and a member of the steering committee for the WVBT, talked about state transportation trends with the transportation committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the Mid-Ohio Valley Wednesday at Ceasar’s Restaurant in Parkersburg.
According to Parsons, 27 percent of West Virginia’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition while travel on state roads is expected to increase 37 percent to 26 billion miles by 2025.
‘‘The miles of roads in West Virginia being paved each year has dropped 50 percent during the past five years and is expected to drop another 88 percent by 2011 unless some kind of action is taken,’’ he said.
Recently, the state’s paving program has had to be reduced, after many years of stagnant funding, Parsons said paving and maintenance costs have escalated as the price of oil/petroleum, steel and other construction materials have gone up recently.
Parsons said the highway department has done quite a bit with little available resources.
‘‘Our highway department is second to none,’’ he said. ‘‘However, people are tending to take them for granted.’’
The state of West Virginia is responsible for more than 36,700 miles of highways across the state, Parsons said. Since West Virginia is a mountainous state with rugged terrain filled with streams and rivers, many bridges have had to be built as part of the state’s road and highway system.
Nearly half, 46 percent, of the bridges on the state’s interstate highway system will need significant repairs or reconstruction by 2026, he said.
Although West Virginia has made tremendous progress in the past 20 years on its highway system with construction of the Appalachian Corridor highways, the state still has a long way to go in addressing highway needs, Parsons said.
‘‘Everyone loves to talk about new construction, but we need to remind people of the investment that’s needed to be put into existing roadways,’’ he said. ‘‘The (WVDOH) needs an additional $350 million a year to maintain the current system of roadways.’’
Despite its small size, West Virginia maintains the sixth-largest network of state roads in the nation. West Virginia is one of four states having jurisdiction over both state and county roads along with Delaware, North Carolina and Virginia.
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com