MORGANTOWN — The years-long effort to place traffic lights at two dangerous University Town Centre intersections will likely stretch into 2025.
On the bright side, it appears the project has been “value engineered” down from $1,549,175 to somewhere in the vicinity of $1,041,388, plus inspection costs.
These were the major takeaways from a Wednesday work session between the Monongalia County Commission, the town of Granville and developer WestRidge — the three parties that have agreed to evenly split the project’s price tag.
Joe Dinkel, with Potesta & Associates, explained much of the cost reduction is tied to a move away from mast arm installations — a vertical pole with a static arm(s) extending out over the roadway — to strain poles between which cables are stretched over the road.
The lights at both UTC entrances, Chaplin Hill Road and I-79 Exit 153, have traffic lights using a strain pole design.
Dinkel said the value engineering effort has been aided significantly by the project’s lone bidder, Specialty Group Inc., a West Virginia company based in Lost Creek.
“The contractor has been working hard with us and has been agreeable. We’re not bigger than the project. We’re going to provide what works,” Dinkel said. “It was never designed to be a Cadillac, but it’s still not a Chevette. I think it’s going to be a nice project when it’s done.”
Dinkel said the notice to proceed could be issued as early as this week. At that point, site prep would likely begin within 60 days and the clock starts on what’s estimated to be a four-to-five month wait for poles.
The push for new lights stretches back to September 2021, when Granville Mayor Patty Lewis approached the commission about two problem areas — one where University Town Centre Drive passes between Walmart and the WVU Medicine facility, and another at the bottom of the hill, between Granville Square and Sesame Drive, which provides access to Chick-fil-A, Wendy’s, Panda Express, etc.
Since that time, the town of Granville has spent just under $85,000 on engineering for the project to address the two most-dangerous intersections in Granville’s jurisdiction, according to city officials.
Nothing has changed in that regard.
Lewis explained Wednesday that there have been more than 200 accidents along University Town Centre Drive in the last 18 months or so.
“We just had one yesterday at the intersection between WVU Medicine and Walmart,” Granville Police Chief Craig Corkrean said. “Those two intersections are where we have the most wrecks. [Sesame Drive] is insane. It’s like taking your life in your hands. … That’s our worst intersection right now, and people are still turning left out of the Chick-fil-A. We could sit there all day and that would be the only thing we do; that and write speeding tickets there.”
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