WESTOVER — It was February 2021 when former Westover Mayor Dave Johnson said he and City Attorney Tim Stranko approached The Thrasher Group about the underlying repairs needed before the condition of Holland Avenue could be addressed in any significant way.
Just over four years later, that much-discussed project is off and running.
“It’s actually finally happening after all this time,” Westover Public Works Director Jason Stinespring said in and update to Westover City Council on Monday.
While Stinespring said he believed the firm was still on schedule to begin early next week, Blue Gold Development showed up Tuesday ready to get started.
The opening phase of work will focus on the Holland Avenue retaining wall before attention is turned to replacement of the busted stormwater and sewer lines running beneath the road.
The construction is expected to take at least 90 days. It will take place around the clock with one lane kept open for personal vehicles. Large commercial vehicles will be detoured using Long Street, Monongahela Avenue and Dunkard Avenue.
On the back end of the project, Stranko said Thrasher and the West Virginia Division of Highways have reached an agreement on a resurfacing plan.
“The DOH wants to put a two-inch finish layer of what they call Type 4 asphalt, Marshall HMA Type 4. They want to do that. What they want us to do is put a good base down; put four inches of Type 1 and two inches of Type 2 and leave that for them to come down and put that final layer in,” he said.
When the contractor is finished, he continued, the quality of asphalt on the road will be comparable to what is there now.
What won’t be there are the busted lines underground causing the earth to shift beneath the road’s surface.
“So, we’ll put transitions in, and then the DOH will come in behind us, either at the end of this paving season or the beginning of next, to put that final two inches in,” Stranko said. “Anecdotally, what they’re telling us is they have a much larger paving project in mind … That project would include Dunkard and Holland for [fiscal year] ‘26.”
Blue Gold Development was awarded the Holland Avenue contract for $2,958,025 in September 2024.
Included in the funding package for Holland Avenue and a connected project to replace the city’s main pump station is the entirety of Westover’s $1,843,157 American Rescue Plan Act allocation.
