MORGANTOWN — Sending a message.
That’s how Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board Chairman Tom Bloom explained Thursday’s policy board decision to reject a West Virginia Department of Highways request regarding the intersection of WV 100 and Dents Run Road.
The DOH asked the MPO to remove a project to improve the turning radius at the intersection from the MPO’s transportation improvement plan, or TIP.
The body refused after Granville Mayor Patty Lewis objected to the removal of the project, and it’s $150,000 in federal allocation.
The T-intersection is just inside Granville’s municipal limits.
“That is a dangerous intersection for our citizens. We’ve been, for years, trying to get DOH to do something at that intersection,” Lewis explained. “We’ve got those large tractor trailers making that wide turn. They’ve busted all our sidewalks up on the opposite side of the street. They’ve taken that telephone pole down a couple times and our fear is, eventually … that pole is going to come down on a pedestrian or car.”
Board Member Mike Kelly said that not only are motorists frustrated, but some truck drivers would rather continue on WV 100 into Westover instead of dealing with the tight intersection.
“Dents Run was built for heavy truck traffic. They just went through and redid it. It’s a nice road. Now you have all these trucks going up 100, through Westover,” he said.
By not approving the DOH’s recommendation to remove the project from the MPO’s TIP, it will essentially tie up the $150,000 in federal funding allocated for the project.
The lone authority the MPO has is it must approve the use of federal funds within its area, meaning the MPO’s TIP and the state’s TIP must be in alignment for federal money to be used. If they don’t, the money allocated for the project or projects in question can’t be utilized.
Brian Carr is the DOH representative on the MPO.
Carr, who abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote, said he foresaw Thursday’s conversation and is looking into why the DOH is asking the MPO to remove the project.
“They only asked for it to be pushed back in the federal [transportation improvement plan], but somewhere down the line, it’s gotten deleted,” Carr said, explaining that representatives from DOH District 4 are following up. “This may all be a great bit typo.”
Staying in Granville, MPO staff plans to undertake a preliminary traffic study to see if traffic lights are needed along University Town Centre Drive — particularly at Sesame Drive, which is the entrance/exit for Chick-fil-A, Wendy’s and Panda Express.
“What we would be doing is just a high level planning study of how’s it operating and do we see the warrants of a traffic signal needed at one or any of these intersections,” MPO Executive Director Bill Austin said.
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