CHARLESTON — Sure, Preston and Pocahontas counties share some notable attributes when it comes to roads and weather. But the two will not share a DOH district anytime soon.
Preston County will likely not leave the West Virginia Division of Highways District 4.
The proposed change, from District 4 to District 8, was brought up by the Preston Chamber of Commerce as an idea to help improve the county’s roads.
The chamber believed District 8 would be a natural fit for Preston as it contains counties similar to Preston, such as Pocahontas and Tucker – rural with lots of snow. District 4 meanwhile has more urban counties such as Harrison, Monongalia and Marion counties. Taylor County is also part of District 4.
However, Secretary of Transportation Jimmy Wriston said at a meeting with representatives from Preston during Preston County Day at the Legislature last week that the county is where it needs to be
“You talk about redistricting, that comes up from time-to-time for us to look at that and we’ve done that several times over the years, restructuring the districts,” Wriston said. “What we found out is we’ve probably got it right already. And it’s a lot more complex than you would think.”
For example, think of the bridges in Preston County, he said.
“All of those bridge files, all of that bridge history, is all located right there in that district in that area,” Wriston said. “To move that stuff and then have a whole different people taking that over without any institutional knowledge or anything like that. It’s very different. We are acutely aware of the issues with Preston County, you got some big issues.”
First, there’s 1,200 miles of roads, he said. Second, Preston County probably has the shortest working season in the state. Staffing issues are compounding the problem.
Wriston said the DOH is trying to get back to core maintenance activities on a three-year cycle and pointed to the big blitz the division did in 2019. Work such as ditching and getting potholes repaired — those efforts have paid off in reduced maintenance costs and saved millions.
He said, under him, the DOH is getting back to the basics and not doing showy projects around election cycles.
“We think we got the right idea. You take care of the core stuff, you take care of the things that deteriorate these roadways, take care of the things that – the water always wins. So you take care of those things.”
A lot of data gets collected, allowing the DOH to know a lot about the roads and make data driven decisions, Wriston said.
“We can take that data and turn it into useful information and make good sound decisions to stretch those dollars. And that’s exactly what this division has been moving toward,” Wriston said.
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