BECKLEY, W.Va. — West Virginia Turnpike travel plazas at Beckley and Bluestone are on pace to be completed by the end of this year.
Members of the West Virginia Parkways Authority got an up close look at the work on the Beckley site near Tamarack Monday as part of the authority’s monthly meeting.
Executive Director
Jeff Miller
“You’re starting to see things really take shape,” Parkways Authority Executive Director Jeff Miller told MetroNews. “They’re working on the interior of the facilities now and the canopies, which I think will become iconic for both.”
Demolition of the old travel plaza buildings began last spring. Paramount Builders, a St. Albans-based contractor, is being paid $122.8 million to rebuild the facilities. Work is anticipated to begin on the Morton Travel Plaza in Kanawha County next spring.
Miller said the work at Bluestone in Mercer County is a little ahead of the Beckley site but he’s hopeful both will be completed by the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
“What people are going to find is a very well-lit area, beautiful landscaping, a nice facility with great amenities for the traveling public,” Miller said. “It will be a nice place for families and commercial truck drivers to stop and feel like they are in a safe environment there.”
Miller previously told MetroNews the new travel plaza at Beckley will be the centerpiece. Once finished it will have several restaurant choices including Wendy’s, Starbucks, Popeyes, a 24-hour convenience-type store along with an outdoor dining options with a permanent food truck-looking structure.
Miller said Beckley will also have 50 additional parking spaces for tractor trailers and 16 electric vehicle charging stations.
There was initially a lot of site work at both sites including the replacing of fuel tanks and drainage work, Miller said.
“Before we could even really start building or reaching the point of any type of vertical construction, there was a whole lot of work that had to take place on the ground level,” he said.
Miller added the project hasn’t been hit with massive additional construction costs. He credits the builder’s initial bid.
“I think the contractor put in a very forthright bid on what they planned on doing and included all the contingencies on their part in the beginning,” Miller said.