MORGANTOWN — Construction on Van Voorhis Road should resume soon.
Jason Nelson, District 4 construction engineer for the West Virginia Division of Highways (DOH), said the DOH is waiting for the contractor to schedule a milling crew, which should happen within the next few weeks.
Following the milling, he said there are four or five days of paving to be done to finish the job. The construction will run from the intersection of W.Va. 705 to the intersection with Wedgewood Drive, he said.
Previous work in the area widened the roadway and improved drainage, Nelson said. There is no other construction planned on the road in 2018, he said.
The project cost $902,209.00 in total, Nelson said. The paving is about $10,000 and the paving is $110,000, according to bid items, he said.
The road’s condition in the area is “shameful,” Windsor Estates Homeowners Association President Andrew Smith said.
Smith said the road was milled in November and then left, creating dangerous conditions, including deep ruts on the right of the road and a manhole cover protruding a foot above the road. He also said there is a large pothole in the middle of the road.
“The chaos that’s been created by that road is just dangerous,” he said.
Smith said he believes the DOH should have had the foresight to not leave such a major thoroughfare into Morgantown in the condition it did.
Nelson said in this case the milling was called so the curb height would be correct before and after the final paving. The milling also needed to be down prior to the placement of the curb and gutter to ensure the drainage was properly working, he said.
