Moundsville to Morgantown highway

[Tom958]

This item from the local TV station via AARoads Facebook page yesterday. I read the article, watched the video, and... they're kidding right? Marshall County, which has +/- 34,000 people, is supposed to fund a highway like that?

It's an interesting idea, but I can't imagine it being done with all-local funding. And, frankly, that Miller guy comes across as a nut.

Thoughts?

[NE2]

He's hoping the better-than-hour drive could be cut down to 20 minutes with the new highway.

What the fuck? Moundsville to Morgantown is 46 miles in a straight line (and 69 miles via the current shortest reasonable route via Waynesburg and PA 21).

[english si]

^^ tis those hovercars we're gonna get by Oct 26th!

[Tom958]

He's hoping the better-than-hour drive could be cut down to 20 minutes with the new highway.

What the fuck? Moundsville to Morgantown is 46 miles in a straight line (and 69 miles via the current shortest reasonable route via Waynesburg and PA 21).

Yes, you see what I'm talking about. I suppose that he's talking about the part that's within Marshall County, but he also says that they'd start building it from the Moundsville and Cameron ends and meet in the middle. Why would they do that? And why would that be nailed down so early?

Maybe he's a frustrated roadgeek who somehow never discovered the community.   

EDIT: OK, too sarcastic. I'll play around with this for a while. Found this:

[NE2]

One problem with that map: it doesn't consider the route via Waynesburg.

[SP Cook]

This bad idea has bounced around for 40 years.  It is idiotic.  First, as noted, this, not that important, route is already adequately served by I-70 to I-79.  Second, area from just west of Morgantown to just east of Moundsville is incredibly unpopulated and with terrible topography, such that not only would construction be very expensive, it would not yield any developable land. 

The whole thing seems born of WVU fans who don't want to have to leave the state to see "their" (generally same words as on their driver's license, no actual relationship) team lose.

[Tom958]

And, on top of everything else, someone who should know better is apparently saying that it could be built for $5m per mile. 

[Bitmapped]

This project has no chance of happening, no matter who funds it. There's no way the counties could up with enough funding on their own even if they had the authority to spend it. The project isn't on the state's priority list because there are other viable routes for through traffic.

Monongalia County has significant transportation needs in the Morgantown area, where people actually live and growth is occurring.  Monongalia is interested in raising local funds for transportation projects, but they would go on fixing things locally, not on a highway to serve the hinterlands of Marshall County.

[Bitmapped]

I will say that Cameron and southeastern Marshall County are very isolated right now.  US 250 between Hundred and Moundsville is an awful road. North of WV 891, it bounces along the ridgetops.  South of there, it's up, down, and around every hill.

A much more viable option would be to upgrade US 250 on its existing alignment, at least north of Cameron.  Straightening out the curves between WV 891 and Moundsville, maybe with a rebuilt or relocated descent into Moundsville, would make a world of difference.  I'd also reconstruct US 250 from WV 891 into Cameron as a spur.  This would provide good access into Moundsville and to I-79/Morgantown via WV 891/PA 21.  US 250 south of Cameron isn't worth the expense of upgrading.

WV 7 is already a pretty decent road east of US 250.  You can drive 55mph on most of it.  A couple curve realignments would fix it up nicely.

[Tom958]

^^^Thanks for that! 

[Sykotyk]

i drove US250 from Moundsville to I-79 once. ONCE.

Probably never will again. Just not worth it. Way too many curves, hills, etc. Took forever to drive that stretch. It could use some improvements. Grading and fixing some of the tighter curves. But, that's about it.

[Henry]

This bad idea has bounced around for 40 years.  It is idiotic.  First, as noted, this, not that important, route is already adequately served by I-70 to I-79.  Second, area from just west of Morgantown to just east of Moundsville is incredibly unpopulated and with terrible topography, such that not only would construction be very expensive, it would not yield any developable land. 

The whole thing seems born of WVU fans who don't want to have to leave the state to see "their" (generally same words as on their driver's license, no actual relationship) team lose.

And, on top of everything else, someone who should know better is apparently saying that it could be built for $5m per mile. 

So in a nutshell, this I-68 extension would be an even bigger pork-barrel project than I-99? Bud Shuster would need to watch his back! On the upside, at least it would provide motorists with an option to avoid the Pittsburgh area completely.

[dave19]

Bud's been retired for at least 12 years now. He doesn't care.

I'm weary of people calling I-99 a pork project. I lived in the Altoona area for many years. It seemed like someone was killed on old 220 every other week before the highway was built, especially between Tyrone and I-80.

We can all agree on the inappropriateness of its number, but that highway was needed.

[ARMOURERERIC]

FWIW, I have been reading numerous threads over at City Data to the effect of: "I work in downtown Pittsburgh, but my SO now has a job in Morgantown, where can we live that keeps both our commutes under 1 hour.  First, the number of replies of people also in similar commute patterns, replies that there are frequent morning commute backups from Morgantown well up into Mount Morris and claims that there is a growing commute pattern from Wheeling to Morgantown via a supposedly very choked PA21 through Waynesburg makes me not want to automatically dismiss the need for some improvement.  Even my mom in Pittsburgh tells me of a growing populace of UWV faculty living in Southpointe.

[SP Cook]

With all respect, that is why you don't make multi-million dollar public works decisions based on posts on a some website.   Morgantown already has more roads than the traffic volumes would indicate are needed.

http://www.transportation.wv.gov/highways/programplanning/preliminary_engineering/traffic_analysis/trafficvolume/dists_4_5_6/Documents/dist456/Monongalia211.pdf

Baring an accident, there are NO traffic backups in that tiny, sleepy, backwater college town, other than during football games.

[Bitmapped]

With all respect, that is why you don't make multi-million dollar public works decisions based on posts on a some website.   Morgantown already has more roads than the traffic volumes would indicate are needed.

http://www.transportation.wv.gov/highways/programplanning/preliminary_engineering/traffic_analysis/trafficvolume/dists_4_5_6/Documents/dist456/Monongalia211.pdf

Baring an accident, there are NO traffic backups in that tiny, sleepy, backwater college town, other than during football games.

Except there are every single weekday when WVU is in session.

[Bitmapped]

FWIW, I have been reading numerous threads over at City Data to the effect of: "I work in downtown Pittsburgh, but my SO now has a job in Morgantown, where can we live that keeps both our commutes under 1 hour.  First, the number of replies of people also in similar commute patterns, replies that there are frequent morning commute backups from Morgantown well up into Mount Morris and claims that there is a growing commute pattern from Wheeling to Morgantown via a supposedly very choked PA21 through Waynesburg makes me not want to automatically dismiss the need for some improvement.  Even my mom in Pittsburgh tells me of a growing populace of UWV faculty living in Southpointe.

There are a growing number of people commuting between Morgantown and Pittsburgh/Washington, although it's still a pretty small number.  A western extension of I-68 would do nothing to help them, though.  Widening the I-70/I-79 concurrency around Washington, PA will.

Traffic might back up slightly getting off I-79 Exit #155 and I-69 Exit #1 getting into Morgantown at peak times, but the Interstates themselves are relatively free flowing (I'd say LOS C at worst normally).  It's the surface streets within Morgantown that have traffic problems.

The short 2-lane part of PA 21 on the east side of Waynesburg does get backed up at times.  PennDOT is currently working on widening this stretch.  West of Waynesburg, there generally aren't any problems other than getting stuck behind a slow driver or truck.

[GCrites]

Why should we subsidize megacommuting?

[Pete from Boston]

To let people live where they want. Sprawl is good. I know it bugs the eco-nazis, but who cares.

I want to live in a really nice house up the street from me that's for sale.  Since I'm not using my subsidy for new road construction, can I just divert it to helping me with the down payment?

We should be helping me live where I want, right?

I know it bugs people who don't benefit at all from where I live, but who cares.

[Alps]

To let people live where they want. Sprawl is good. I know it bugs the eco-nazis, but who cares.

Troll.

[Tom958]

Many days later...

Why should we subsidize megacommuting?

Because we're too lazy to unsubsidize it.   

And that is a subject for a different thread.   

Back on in the general direction of topic: To me, the idea that megacommuting in itself could create a traffic problem that otherwise wouldn't exist seems like a stretch. And that's from someone who lives between Atlanta and Athens, where bidirectional megacommuting surely exists.

And, more on topic: Recalling the article that prompted the OP, while this is being called an I-68 extension, I got the idea was that the rationale was not so much of a through corridor as it was to provide decent access to the mountainous hinterlands, partly in order to aid resource development. To me, a relatively modest (though still expensive) upgrade such as Bitmapped described sounds sensible to (utterly clueless about the area) me.

[hbelkins]

Those who choose to use more gasoline, and thus pay more in gas taxes, are the ones who are subsidizing "megacommuting."

[GCrites]

That would be true if fuel taxes came anywhere close to fully funding the highway system, let alone county roads, township roads and unumbered city streets that are paid for by property taxes.

[hbelkins]

That would be true if fuel taxes came anywhere close to fully funding the highway system, let alone county roads, township roads and unumbered city streets that are paid for by property taxes.

Not the case in Kentucky, where the gas tax funds local roads as well as state roads.

[GCrites]

Isn't West Virginia like that too? WV doesn't have townships either. Does the property tax on vehicles seen in some states go toward roads? Regardless, federal income taxes also go toward roads whether someone drives or not.