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POTHOLES AND PATCHES - You'd Better Get Use To Them |
| (05/09/2007) |
| By Bob Weaver Paved highways in Calhoun and regional counties are falling apart. Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, said in Charleston yesterday that it is not debatable - the overall condition of state roads has deteriorated in recent years. DOH chief Paul Mattox said that's because the state currently has roughly the same budget for paving as it did in the 1980s. The costs for road paving materials have soared. Mattox said that the price of asphalt has gone from $37 a ton in 2002 to more than $67 a ton in 2007. If you're concerned about pot-holed and overly patched and bumpy roads, you'd better be patient. Mattox says the highway department now stretch the repaving cycle for state roads from once every 14 1/2 years to once every 22 years. The Hur Herald's efforts to find out what is currently being scheduled for improvements in Calhoun County and other regional counties has been without success. For years, the local highway department would release public information about what was being done in the county, but an executive order issued by Gov. Joe Manchin's office requires public information requests to at least go to the district. After several weeks of trying to access the public information, the Herald has issued a Freedom of Information. The state's six-year road plan, touted by the governor as an accurate list of statewide projects, has been changed and many of the projects once listed for 2007-2008 have now been dated several years into the future. The replacement of two bridges on US 33-119, the Corder Bridge at the Calhoun-Roane line and the Ruby Bradley Bridge leading into Spencer, currently scheduled for replacement, are now future projects. The highway department declared again this week that their statewide county core maintenance program is not a signal the agency is moving toward privatization. More to follow.
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