NITRO, W.Va. — State Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox says he hopes the state can get a high priority road construction project moving more next year.
The projected $125 million widening of Interstate 64 between Nitro and Crooked Creek in Putnam County is at the top of list to get done as soon as possible, Mattox said.
“We need to build an adjacent bridge and widen the highway. It’s a huge congestion problem in the Kanawha Valley,” Mattox said this week.
The DOH recently received environmental clearance for the project and the right-of-way process is currently underway. It’s a design-build project and requests for proposals are scheduled to go out sometime next year. The project has not been delayed, the agency said.
A 2013 traffic study from the DOH showed that 60,000 motorists traveled through that stretch of interstate each day with estimates that by the year 2030 that number could be more than 100,000 motorists.
“This needed to be done 10 years or so ago but we just didn’t have the funds to move it,” Mattox said.
DOH engineers held a workshop on the project back in May. DOH Communications Specialist Carrie Jones explained the scope of the project at the time.
“What we’re going to do is expand the main stretch of interstate to six lanes, and then we’re going to add an additional bridge,” she said. “The bridge that connects Nitro to St. Albans, we’re going to put an additional span, and you’ll have three travel lanes and one auxiliary lane.”
Mattox said this week he hopes 2017 will mean a time of moving forward for the project.