KINGWOOD — Work continues on roads throughout Preston County, as does the struggle to keep a full staff, State Division of Highways (DOH) representatives told county commissioners Monday.
Work should begin within two to three weeks on correcting a slide on W.Va. 72 that narrows the road to one lane outside Rowlesburg, District 4 Engineer Darby Clayton said at Monday’s meeting.
Once work begins he will be able to give a better estimate of the time needed to do the job, Clayton said.
FEMA-funded work on Salt Lick Road is complete, Preston County Supervisor Blain Bowmar said. Work will begin on some of the worst flood damage on other parts of the road, he said, now that authorization has been received.
“It’s hard to determine which are the worse areas,” he noted.
Commission President Dave Price said Salt Lick is heavily traveled and he gets a lot of questions about when it will be repaired.
Keeping Preston’s DOH staffed remains a challenge, Bowmar said. By the end of October, he’ll be down eight people. Another employee will retire at the end of January.
Both CDL certified and non-CDL personnel are needed, he and Clayton said. Clayton said, if workers want to earn their CDL, the DOH will walk them through the test process, provide driving time for training and allow them to use a state truck to take the test.
“The job fair at the armory did help, but we’re going to end up retaining about half of those when it’s all said and done,” Clayton said. “Which is really about what I expected.”
Updates
Bowmar said Preston did not get approved by the state for any purchase order (p.o.) patching contracts. It was approved for three purchase order ditching projects: W.Va. 7 from Masontown to Kingwood, W.Va. 26 from Albright to Kingwood and Prison Road to County Route 13.
Purchase order projects are contracted out by state to local contractors. For example, Monongalia County was approved for 13 ditching and patching contracts, including patching on W.Va. 7 between Kingwood and Morgantown.
But the contracts are not the solution hoped for, Clayton said. For example, on one Mon County project, the contractor with the low bid — $96,000 — turned it down. The second place bid was $300,000 and the third-place bid was $10 million.
The DOH chose not to take the higher bids.
Other road updates passed on by the DOH:
Paving is underway on Clifton Mills Road.
A purchase order was issued to correct a slide on Cheat Mountain on the west side of the Cheat River Bridge on U.S. 50.
Lines were painted on W.Va. 26 from Interstate 68 to the Pennsylvania line over the weekend.
County Route 29, Flat Rock Road, where one lane is bad on Second Gear Hill, will have to be milled.
A couple bad places on Oaks Loop will be repaired.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of work going on all around the county,” Commissioner Samantha Stone said.
That said, she gets a lot of calls from the northern part of the county. Many about Woolen Mills Road, she said. Bowmar said crews were patching the road Monday.
Clayton said the DOH received complaints about Dennis Road in the northern part of the county, ranging from the size of millings used to the washboard effect.
“Compared to what it was, with all the potholes and all, it’s a 100% better,” Clayton said. “Could it be better? Yes it can. It’s on the schedule next year to do something with this. This should get us through the winter.”
When millings are available, work will be done on Salem Five Forks Road, Clayton said. He traveled it Monday morning, “and it’s bad,” he said.
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