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I'll save the town some money. It's a giant mess, you aren't going to magically remove the hundreds of housing units that have gone up in the last 2 years, the road can't be widened, and people aren't going to stop using it as an inefficient little shortcut artery in and out of town. Oh, and that traffic signal you people put up is only encouraging people to abuse its existence.
My advice is to concede that the road is a failure and move on to something salvageable. Maybe like creating a 4-lane from 705 to I-68. There is still some land between the triangle of west Run Road, Stewartstown, and Rt 119. It might facilitate it. Or maybe not. That gargantuan eyesore of a student housing development called West Run might prevent it. But either way, for the love of God, just start pretending West Run Road doesn't exist. It is a failure.
Morgantown might have the most embarrassing road infrastructure in the state. I used to think Vienna was bad with all of the illogical and pointless dead ends and roads that go nowhere...somehow Morgantown is worse...
The solution is/has been here for years...overhead, panelized highways..
Portland was a pioneer in this 40 years ago....cheapest to build, aestetic, and almost unlimited in the potential to move people..almost nothing needs torn down to do them.
The solution is/has been here for years...overhead, panelized highways..
Portland was a pioneer in this 40 years ago....cheapest to build, aestetic, and almost unlimited in the potential to move people..almost nothing needs torn down to do them.
Most of the surrounding Morgantown area is a mess due to lack of planning. Not that my vote changed the outcome, but I wish I would have voted for the transportation tax last year. I was against it at the time because I wanted to punish those who waited until now to recognize the obvious. Voting that tax down only punished us all for much longer.
It was the wrong type of tax...students pay enough here..and their wages are 'bare bones...with nothing to spare. It was not a fair tax.
I would simply add a city sur-tax to the restaurants...a $0.25 charge to every single order. It would really be insignificant and garner much more money than a wage tax..
Morgantown is a sports town..and the majority or at least an even amount of the tax would be paid by the people who come here to use the city...
Just think of the 50,000 bikers coming here this week...3 meals per day...for 4 days= $25,000 from one single event. And it would create jobs because of the city packing the town with more events.
We don't even use the river or Cheat Lake...the potential is almost endless.
And this tax needs to be broadend out to include the regions around Morgantown that will eventually be annexed...
Most of the surrounding Morgantown area is a mess due to lack of planning. Not that my vote changed the outcome, but I wish I would have voted for the transportation tax last year. I was against it at the time because I wanted to punish those who waited until now to recognize the obvious. Voting that tax down only punished us all for much longer.
It wouldn't be a mess if the State were doing its job. Most of the highway infrastructure that needs to be built is on state numbered highways, or Federal numbered (U.S.) highways for which the State get's 50% support from the Feds for whatever is done to them. Manchin is so busy taking care of his cronies with a bloated bureaucracy that he doesn't even notice the mess that are the roads. What was last year's bureaucratic fiasco? An entirely new bureaucracy that absolutely nobody wanted for the Community Colleges that accomplishes nothing.
Still, the tax would be better than nothing for the non-state or federal roads. I can see little reason why 705 isn't made four lane quickly to the Mileground.
They could pave the existing roadbase and accomplish it by putting emergency pulloffs every couple hundred feet. Put an extra lane from 119 to the Airport Road, and use a system of arrows and Xs on the Mileground itself to have two lanes of traffic going one way in the am and the other in the pm would do wonders with minimal expense. Extend the 4 lane from I68 to Don Knotts on the other end and make Beechurst 4 lanes by tearing down most of the old structures on the river side. Do these things and 80 % of the problem downtown would be solved.
The county needs to get involved with finding a way to improve the road out Van Voorhis. At a minimum they should have turning lanes at the top of the hills and install sidewalks/improve drainage before someone is killed there. If they have any sense they could also move the utilities underground at the same time and get the utility companies to help defray the costs.
I agree with Kennedy that there isn't much that can be done with West Run. The situation out Van Voorhis isn't going to be helped by the fact that there won't be bus service as frequently there because The District is pulling out from supporting bus runs and operating their own bus. What that does is gives them a competitive advantage over the other complexes since the rest of them will now have less frequent service.
Last edited by CTMountaineer; 07-22-2009 at 08:58 PM..
I wonder when rte 43 will finally connect with 68. I have been hearing for ages it will be soon completed. It would be much safer than taking 857 which can be quite treacherous especially when the road is icy.
I think that is supposed to happen by the middle of next year. A "stimulous" payment of entirely Federal funds was earmarked for it.
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