COAL HAUL ROADS COULD COST BILLIONS - Bridges Must Be Replaced

(03/18/2003)

There are about 7,500 miles of state highways in southern West Virginia, but 600 miles of them are designed for vehicles no heavier than 65,000 pounds. This creates a problem for the newly approved 120,000 to 126,000 weight limits for coal trucks. Transportation Secretary Fred VanKirk and highway engineers will have to approve which routes in a 15-county area can be certified as coal haul roads. The certification means 126,000-pound coal trucks could legally run those highways and comply with the legislatures decision to make overweight coal trucks legal. VanKirk said the real problem will be the bridges. "There may be a few of them, but to be frankly I don't think they'll be that many," he said. VanKirk plans to issue a public report by July 1 and designate the roads by January 1, 2004. For example, none of three Webster County state routes, W.Va. 9, 20 and 82, spelled out in the bill can handle weights higher than 65,000 pounds. The federal interstates allow an 80,000 pound limit. "The infrastructure must surely be very close to being in place," said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, but VanKirk is not optimistic. He goes back to the bridges. About half of the state's 6,315 bridges need to be upgraded or replaced. A 1980 study looked at upgrading 3,600 miles of coal haul roads throughout the state. In today's dollars, such a move would cost nearly $3 billion, according to VanKirk. The new legislation would collect between $200,000 and $1 million a year in fees from the 2,500 or so coal trucks operating in the region and another $1.25 million might be raised each year from the nickel-per-ton fee assessed on coal hauled on these roads. That means West Virginia taxpayers would foot most of the bill for upgrading roads and bridges.

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