Mon County Area Roads and Infrastructure (Charleston, Morgantown: young professionals, manufacturing, housing)
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705 I thought was supposed to be started at the earliest this fall and go for 2+ years (they will probably start just in time for football season). I’d like to know what is going on with 19/7/Mon Blvd through star city and up to the coliseum. There are signs saying construction starting July 2 and some stakes in the ground but zero construction has happened and not a single thing of equipment. You just know they are waiting for students to get back to start cutting up that road to widen it. The DOH has essentially wasted over a month already sitting on these big projects that they announced will be started this year, it is almost like they want chaos when the students get back.
This isn't on the DOH. It's on the Contractor who was awarded the project. The DOH can't force them to start work on a particular date. Most Contractors in this District have so much work right now they can't keep up with it all. It's unprecedented. Nonetheless, a big part of the problem is Charleston. They don't really care much about District 4 and how much it is growing. To them we are nothing special. This becomes a problem when you consider every project let in the state goes through Charleston (i.e. Contract Administration). They decide when to put our projects on the letting list and believe me, they take their good old time. Projects that were submitted with plenty of time to put on the July letting list end up getting put on August and September's. There is a lot more at work in the process than you might think.
That is going to be multi-year project and it was not supposed to start until the fall.
I do not get the idea of what you mean paving another interstate that doesn't need paved. Every portion they have paved has needed badly. Having any sort of issues with interstate surfaces is much more dangerous than a local road because the high rate of traffic and the speeds on there.
Also these projects do not happen over night and there are several projects getting done. It not always the fault of the DOH it lies on the engineering firms doing the design of the bigger ones and the contractors that build them.
Things are getting done, you just need to be patient.
My patience ran out years ago. I never see DOH employees, the few that we have doing anything.
Here are the facts, the Charleston mafia HATES Morgantown and screws us on purpose.
Where are the "several" projects. I see work on the interstate, that is it.
This isn't on the DOH. It's on the Contractor who was awarded the project. The DOH can't force them to start work on a particular date. Most Contractors in this District have so much work right now they can't keep up with it all. It's unprecedented. Nonetheless, a big part of the problem is Charleston. They don't really care much about District 4 and how much it is growing. To them we are nothing special. This becomes a problem when you consider every project let in the state goes through Charleston (i.e. Contract Administration). They decide when to put our projects on the letting list and believe me, they take their good old time. Projects that were submitted with plenty of time to put on the July letting list end up getting put on August and September's. There is a lot more at work in the process than you might think.
Why can't the contract specify start dates? Would including that require a legislative fix?
I wish we had more local control. Charleston has zero track record of success on anything really. Plus, I honestly believe they purposefully wait so that chaos is amplified when students return.
That is going to be multi-year project and it was not supposed to start until the fall.
I do not get the idea of what you mean paving another interstate that doesn't need paved. Every portion they have paved has needed badly. Having any sort of issues with interstate surfaces is much more dangerous than a local road because the high rate of traffic and the speeds on there.
Also these projects do not happen over night and there are several projects getting done. It not always the fault of the DOH it lies on the engineering firms doing the design of the bigger ones and the contractors that build them.
Things are getting done, you just need to be patient.
Why should paving a few miles of road (they should skip Patteson Drive part, it doesn't need paved) take multiple years?
Tired of ruining tires and other things on my car because of the State's failures to maintain the roads.
I'm tired of the DOH NEVER answering their phone.
Tired of the roads being so much better everywhere else I travel in this state.
I saw on the news last night that the DOH hiring event was a huge success. The media helped by putting this info out several days before. Apparently hundreds showed up for the dozens of positions they have open. They took applications until 6pm and about 100 applicants had shown up by noon.
I will give the DOH some credit for changing past policies in this regard. Rather than call people back for interviews they interviewed that day. They are also trying to shorten hiring time to 3 weeks rather than 3 months or more based on comments by Don Williams in another interview.
This is an example of what I meant when I said I get frustrated by always hearing they CAN'T do something. There seems to be plenty of people wanting jobs that aren't all running to the gas companies. I hope they aren't too picky and hire most of them.
The hiring difficulty when competing with the gas companies has some truth to it but it's not completely true. If it were wholly true than how come refuse companies can always find people to hire to pick up our trash? Not an attractive, highly paid job but they DO find people. In fact, the crew in my area never misses a pick up and are very efficient.
BTW, Republic Services and some of it's recent problems is a perfect example of the importance of management I mentioned in other posts. For decades Suburban Sanitation ran without a hitch. Then a large company like Republic took over. They didn't know this area or manage it well and it was chaos for quite a while. The trash would eventually get picked up though. That's the difference with the DOH problems and why people are so angry - we HAVE been patient and aren't getting the repairs we pay for. Now many of the roads have degraded to the point that they are a public safety hazard.
Apparently there are some DOH employees (or connected to them) posting on this thread. I hope they listen. No one is attacking them. Some of the arguments I have heard from them for years though just don't make sense.
Another thing people need to keep in mind is the high turnover in District 4. It has a lot of trouble keeping employees for reasons mentioned previously, among others. When you have such high turnover, the experience is lost and there is no continuity. Therefore, things do not get done efficiently or smoothly. If a private business will fail under these conditions, you can bet the government will. Don Williams has only been there about a year, although he did work there several years ago as the construction engineer. He is most likely going to retire this year. As mentioned previously, the maintenance engineer transferred to a different district and the design engineer transferred to a different section. The DOH had a similar hiring event about 9 months ago where they hired about a dozen or so people. Guess how many of those hired remain there today? One.
They have beechurst not being started until 2021......$&%#@*!
Star City exit construction isn't planned until 2020......$&%#@*!
With the wheeling bridge project coming in way over expected cost, I'll be stunned if we ever see these projects. Probably why all of the major projects in Mon County are later on the list (years wise), because the state knows it'll run out of money from the bonds before getting to these. "Sorry Mon county, we really did want to fix your roads but darn you were to far back on the list and we ran out of money before getting to you guys. Thanks again though voting to approve this, the rest of the state really appreciates it!"
Mileground is apparently starting this November and running through September of 2020....I'll believe it when I see it (but I've noticed flags in the ground in a couple places and they are in the process of moving one of the billboards out of the way)
It is weird that 705 isn't on the list, I thought it was part of the road bonds projects.
They have the airport exit bridge (I68 Pierpont exit) listed as starting in July this year and lasting until May 2019. Unless I missed something over the weekend they haven't even got signage up yet for the bridge construction. If we see it this year, I bet they start just in time for football season.
They have beechurst not being started until 2021......$&%#@*!
Star City exit construction isn't planned until 2020......$&%#@*!
With the wheeling bridge project coming in way over expected cost, I'll be stunned if we ever see these projects. Probably why all of the major projects in Mon County are later on the list (years wise), because the state knows it'll run out of money from the bonds before getting to these. "Sorry Mon county, we really did want to fix your roads but darn you were to far back on the list and we ran out of money before getting to you guys. Thanks again though voting to approve this, the rest of the state really appreciates it!"
Mileground is apparently starting this November and running through September of 2020....I'll believe it when I see it (but I've noticed flags in the ground in a couple places and they are in the process of moving one of the billboards out of the way)
It is weird that 705 isn't on the list, I thought it was part of the road bonds projects.
They have the airport exit bridge (I68 Pierpont exit) listed as starting in July this year and lasting until May 2019. Unless I missed something over the weekend they haven't even got signage up yet for the bridge construction. If we see it this year, I bet they start just in time for football season.
And the Valley View Road completion date (Oct 2018) contradicts what the MUB's press release mentioned with the project being completed next summer.
With the wheeling bridge project coming in way over expected cost, I'll be stunned if we ever see these projects. Probably why all of the major projects in Mon County are later on the list (years wise), because the state knows it'll run out of money from the bonds before getting to these. "Sorry Mon county, we really did want to fix your roads but darn you were to far back on the list and we ran out of money before getting to you guys. Thanks again though voting to approve this, the rest of the state really appreciates it!"
Some in District 4 were actually against the road bond for this very reason.
According to a Metro news story today the House Minority leader is suggesting the DOH purposely underestimated the costs of projects. Hmmm...
“I sincerely hope that the public was not misled on the costs and the number of the projects that the state will be able under the Roads to Prosperity program,” Miley wrote. “If the project costs were underestimated to make it appear that more projects would be included in the Roads to Prosperity program than what you knew to be accurate, I believe that you and your administration should be held accountable for either intentionally, or negligently, deceiving the public simply to elicit support.”
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I hope they aren't too picky and hire most of them. 
