MORGANTOWN — It’s been discussed, debated, argued over, designed, contracted out and cancelled.
Now it appears the roundabout planned for the angular intersection of University Avenue, Collins Ferry Road and Baldwin Street has come full circle.
Mountaineer Contractors, out of Kingwood, was awarded a $2,091,104 contract on Sept. 25 to build the single-lane, oval roundabout at the crossroads first identified as problematic by the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization back in 2005.
Jason Nelson, construction engineer for West Virginia Division of Highways District 4, said the contractor plans to begin construction in March. The project is expected to be complete in August 2026.
This is actually the second time a contract for this project has been awarded.
Mountaineer Contractors was previously awarded the contract with a bid of $1,784,957.41.
“The University Ave. [intersection] Improvement project was originally let in December 2019 and had a completion date of September 2021. This contract was cancelled in December 2022 due to significant complications with settling right-of-way acquisitions,” Nelson explained.
The Morgantown Utility Board completed utility upgrades and relocations totaling just under $815,000 in 2020 in preparation for the project.
As mentioned, this issue dates back nearly 20 years, when the MPO first identified the need for changes at the intersection and started asking the state to take a look.
What the state found is that parts of the intersection graded out at service level F, for failing – particularly in southbound movements from Collins Ferry onto University.
Further, the state noted it’s difficult to get an accurate understanding of how completely the intersection is failing because so much of the traffic looking to move between the two roads avoids it by using Pocahontas Avenue and the Huntington Bank parking lot to cut back and forth.
In 2017, the DOH put forward its oblong roundabout recommendation explaining it would dramatically improve the service level of the intersection.
It received letters of support from the MPO, Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Board of Education — and immediate pushback from some Suncrest residents and business owners in the immediate area.
Residents said they feared the impact the roundabout would have on traffic in the surrounding neighborhood. They also worried how it would affect the function of neighborhood routes, like Baldwin Street.
The town of Star City also came out against the plan. The town’s municipal boundary lies just down University Avenue from the intersection.
Former Star City Mayor Herman Reid stated the town was “vehemently opposed to the placement of the oval roundabout,” in a 2017 letter to the DOH.
Current Star City Mayor Sharon Doyle didn’t take as strong a position, but she did say that even though it falls outside the town’s boundaries, the intersection impacts the flow of traffic through Star City and the upcoming project is something the town is watching closely.
